Personal Reality Marbles
by incarnationofcode
Summary: Throughout mankind's history, only several humans have developed reality marbles. Now, Shirou finds himself amidst a city of roughly a million of them. Welcome to Academy City, Emiya.
1. Prologue

She never pleaded.

She commanded, requested, scoffed, and pouted, but never pleaded.

But on the dirty hall in front of his office, in potential line of sight to many a lineage that wouldn't be caught dead bowing down, there his student was, crumpled to her knees. Tears streaked down Rin Tohsaka's face, staining the now dirtied beige chemise that she must have just woken up in.

She never was a morning person either, Zelretch absently realized.

She looked him in the eyes, the florescent blue that he was used to seeing frustration, embarrassment, and elation in, but this time only conveyed sheer desperation and sadness.

"Please"

"Please save Shirou"

* * *

He was tired.

Tired of hypocrisy, of the endless schemes of mice and men.

Too often, his work only led to more lives lost, each betrayal punctuated with several more children that would grow up without fathers. Time and time again, the incarnation of a weapon made to kill swung his sword with intent to save. Time and time again, he would bear the burden as the life left their eyes. Searching for that smile, his frown grew ever deeper. With each look in the mirror, he looked more and more like the man he so vehemently hated those many years ago.

Thus, this time, he allowed the knife to stab him in the back, held his wrists out for the rope that would bind them, and let himself be captured for execution.

Now, staring at the noose that he saw in Archer's memories, he wondered if it was Fate that led him here. He wondered if he would later look upon a younger version of himself, try once again to kill him, and perpetuate the cycle. He wondered how Rin was doing, the genius apprentice of the Wizard Marshall himself. He hoped she wouldn't mourn him for long, he had already caused so much pain in her life.

Each leaden step up the wooden stairs was one more nail in the coffin of Shirou Emiya. The certainty, the inevitability of it all, was oh so clear to him right in that moment. As such, he wasn't quite expecting the kaleidoscopic tear in the fabric of reality that opened up, revealing a small truck to come plowing through at highway speed.

The body of Shirou Emiya, adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya, was proclaimed dead on site, discovered with severe blunt trauma roughly 20 meters away from what appears to be the wreckage of a makeshift gallows. Evidence suggests an automotive accident, though no such vehicle was ever discovered in the general vicinity. Further investigation pending.

* * *

The gasp was what drew her vision towards it, the thud was what turned it red.

The 3rd ranked esper in Academy City looked on as her new friend hit the ground, the silhouette of a boot evident on her face as she cradled the young boy in her arms.

"Ku-ro-ko…" she announced through gritted teeth.

A girl with twintails flinched at the unspoken command, a wary smile appearing as she prepared to witness the spectacle that was about to occur, as well as deal with the resultant paperwork.

Tracking the stolen car making a U-turn in the middle of the road ahead, a short haired brunette stepped out into middle of the road. Rather than any fear of being run over, she instead wore a disdainful frown, while her eyes stared predatorially at the vehicle ahead.

"If it wasn't my problem before," she calmly stated while drawing an arcade token from her skirt pocket. "It certainly is now."

"Ehhhhehehe…", Kuroko nervously stammered. The pyrokinetic robber trapped beneath her also appeared to have an epiphany. "I remember now! There were rumors of a psychotic teleporter in the ranks of Judgement who would perforate those unlucky enough to warrant her attention!"

"Oh? And who might you be referring to there?", a completely unrelated teleporter asked from atop the pinned man.

"They say she's sold her body and soul. All to gain the favor of the most powerful electromaster in the city!", the man continued, pupils dilating as he realized the forces that he and his comrades just so happened to anger.

"Indeed."

An engine revved, an arm lifted.

"That girl right there stands atop the 2.3 million residents of Academy City."

A car shot forward, a coin shot upwards.

"The third ranked esper among the seven Level 5s."

An old, white sedan rushed towards the middle schooler standing in the middle of the road with intent to kill. Lightning sparked about said middle schooler's arm, increasing in brightness and intensity as the coin almost gravitated downwards just in front of her hand. The car was intercepted by nearly molten stainless steel traveling at over 4000 m/s, striking the engine block with enough momentum to send it airborne. Kuroko watched in awe as it lazily flipped end over end over the brunette's head before landing nose first into the asphalt beyond.

"The Railgun. Misaka Mikoto onee-sama." she finished with pride.

_"The nonchalant hair flip is overdoing it a bit, onee-sama. But I love it."_ she thought with a smile as she made her way over to the crumpled sedan, which had now fallen back into a horizontal position.

She glanced over and noted that her fellow Judgement member, Uiharu Kazari, was already on the phone with what she assumed was the authorities, reporting the situation in real time. Looking back towards the car, the occupant inside was both surprisingly and unsurprisingly unharmed by being on the receiving end of a hypersonic jet of metal, completely unconscious atop the deflated airbag braced against the shattered windshield. A trickle of blood leaked out from both his nose and his ear, likely from the overpressure of the shockwave, but he should make a full recovery, she noted with a cursory glance. The car itself though was a complete write-off, with the bodywork completely crumpled by an attack that could cripple a modern main battle tank. "Hope the owner has both theft and acts of esper covered." she drily thought, concluding her inspection of the scene for the inevitable report with her higher ups.

As she was about to walk away, the soft hiss of the trunk opening on it's own stopped her in her tracks. She glanced curiously at the contents of the trunk, before gasping loudly and jumping back.

Tenderly wiping off Saten's bruise with the hem of her Tokiwadai uniform, Mikoto called out, "What is it, Kuroko?".

"It's… It's a person…", stammered Kuroko.

"What?" Mikoto and Saten both looked up, the brunette taking no time to process this new information before running over to her roommate, quickly followed by Saten, with Uiharu running over to join them.

"There… There's a person in here." Kuroko said, as they all stared at the red haired girl in the back of the car, several developing bruises visible across her head and arms, likely caused by the violent changes her surroundings had undergone.

"Hey! Hey! Wake up! Are you alright?" Misaka asked the crumpled girl, almost reflexively.

_"Were you expecting that to work?"_, Kuroko thought incredulously as she took her eyes off the girl with the sidetail, looking for anything else she might have missed. Her gaze caught the glint of a plastic card lying in the corner of the trunk. Picking it up, it appeared to be a Japanese student ID card, barely legible from the amount of wear it appears to have gone through.

"… uki City Middle School, 2nd year student, Fujimaru Ritsuka"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I've noticed a severe shortage of decent Railgun fiction out there, and I'd like to take a shot at correcting it. A few things to get out of the way first. As natural as it is to hear in our minds for us anime fans, I'll be actively avoiding slapping "-san", "onee-sama" and other Japan-isms everywhere in an English language fic. As you can tell, I'll still use them when thematically appropriate, but just know that those won't be a staple of my writing. On a similar vein, I'll be using the Toaru wiki as my guide for whether I refer to the Toaru characters by their family or given name, so Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten, and Uiharu. On the topic of canonical accuracy, I'll be bending it here and there when I think the science isn't up to snuff, so I've buffed Misaka's Railgun to a more reasonable velocity of Mach 12 in order to flip the car. Hope you all have enjoyed my first foray into fanfiction writing, and be on the lookout for future chapters!


	2. Chapter 1

Amber eyes opened to sterile white. A heart monitor beeping rhythmically gave Shirou a good clue as to where he currently was. Analytical eyes immediately processed the information around him, well-honed from years at war.

Japanese labeled heart monitor, no restraints or shackles, no cracks in the walls or ceilings. Likely in Japan, not at war, nor as a prisoner.

He glanced outside. Generic buildings made up most of the view, but since when did people start putting massive screens on blimps? And when did Japan have a tower in construction that dwarfed the Burj Khalifa? He sat up to get a better look, causing a strand of hair to fall in front of his eye. Brushing the reddish strand out of his face, he…

Wait, when was the last time his hair was still red? A decade ago?

Tracing a quick handheld mirror that he last made for Rin, he brought it up in front of his face.

She screamed.

* * *

Turning back in the direction from which they were walking, Misaka and her friends chased after the Gekota doctor towards the shrill scream down the hall. A hand grabbed her, and she barely stopped herself from colliding with the inside of the doorway as the momentum of the teleport carried through. Turning towards the occupant of the room as footsteps could be heard just outside the door, Mikoto watched the redheaded girl they found as she stared disbelievingly at the large handheld mirror, gently patting her face before pinching her own cheek. She barely noticed the crowd gathered in the corner of her room, until Heaven Canceller lightly coughed into his hand.

"Ehem," said the doctor quietly. "Are you alright, Miss Fujimaru?"

"Eh!?" the redhead eloquently responded as she suddenly sat up, the mirror shattering into a cloud of blue particles before dissipating.

The doctor cocked an eyebrow, waiting calmly for a response from the clearly disconcerted patient.

"Um. Where am I?" the girl asked, after taking a moment to somewhat compose herself.

"You're in my hospital, in District 7 of Academy City." replied the doctor. "These girls," gesturing around him, "found you in the trunk of a car during a robbery incident a few hours ago."

The girl thought for a moment. "Thank you all. Where is Academy City?" she asked, to the absolute shock of the girls in her audience.

"Hmm. Definite amnesia." the sole adult of the group noted as he then continued explaining. "It's a city in Tokyo, home to about 2.3 million residents. A little under half of these people are espers, of which you clearly are a part of. We found you next to a student ID that belonged to Fujimaru Ritsuka. Miss Fujimaru, do you happen to remember anyone? Friends, family?"

The girl thought for a moment. "I vaguely remember a Fuyuki City," she says rather tentatively, "I don't remember any parents though."

"How about that ability you just used? We might be able to find out who you are through the records of esper abilities." Uiharu chimed in.

Again, Miss Fujimaru seemed contemplative. "I think I called it Projection", she said, a blue light condensing into a butter knife this time, "I can recreate simple objects completely, but it works best with blades."

Uiharu looked at Heaven Canceller. "If you have a computer here I can borrow, I could access Judgement's database and check."

He nodded and pulled a card out from his pocket. "Down the hall and to the right"

Taking the card, Uiharu rushed out of the room, a few petals fluttering in her wake.

Kuroko took a better look at the resident amnesiac, sighed, and stated, "As a member of Judgement, the local disciplinary committee, it's part of my duty to try to get a bit more information about the situation where we found you. Do you mind if I ask a few more questions?"

"Excuse me for a moment," the girl with the twintails paused her questioning for a moment as her phone rang.

* * *

Ritsuka nodded calmly, but Shirou's mind was in a state of panic.

_"What the hell just happened? Wasn't I just about to die? Who are these people? Why and how did I become a 14 year old girl? If this is someone else's body then why does she have my hair and eyes? Did that girl teleport into the room? What are espers?"_

"She's not in any system that I could find, Kuroko.", Ritsuka reinforced her inner ear slightly as the quiet chatter from the phone drew her attention. "My request for the full Anti-Skill database hasn't gone through yet, but no school's student database has a 'Ritsuka Fujimaru' matching her description, nor does any Creation ability user that specializes in bladed weapons exist. There's no Fuyuki City either, at least not outside of a few visual novels. She's a ghost, Kuroko."

_"No Fuyuki City? What? How is that even... Oh."_

A striking clarity shot through Ritsuka, along with the faint realization that her slight reinforcement shouldn't have made her hearing as sensitive as it is. A sense of utter dread emerged as she realized the party reasonable for her current situation.

"Fuck"

* * *

"Ah, I think he just realized it, Rin." said responsible party commented, looking on through a portal of infinite hues.

Rin didn't reply, still staring at the result of her efforts, an eye twitching as she looked upon the red haired teen. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, tilting her head up towards the ceiling.

"I don't know whether to kiss you, for saving that boneheaded ass," he woman in her mid-thirties sighed, "or kill you, for twisting my wish more than the Grail would have."

Zelretch had the audacity to plaster a large lopsided grin upon his elderly face, not that Rin could see it. "You never did specify how I was to save him, and I think I did a fairly good job there all things considered," he said, verbally patting himself on the back. "Anyway, he's with his people now. Not often you find a world where 1 million inhabitants possess their own reality marbles."

Azure eyes blinked wide open. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Yeah, don't know exactly what they're feeding these kids, but all the girls you see there either have or are capable of developing a reality marble, but I don't think any of them can manifest it." Zelretch informed Rin, sounding curious himself. Generally, that would be enough of a red flag to evacuate the whole of the Clocktower, but Rin herself was engrossed in the possibilities that presented.

"Wait, doesn't that mean that unlike magecraft, their abilities won't ever reduce in strength no matter how many people are enacting mysteries? Therefore, that's why they so openly display their abilities as society doesn't require secrecy to consolidate power, rather advancing the development of these abilities through widespread adoption of…" Rin rambled onwards, deducing the social situation in Academy City with surprising accuracy. She then paused for a moment, before slowly turning to glare at Zelretch. "Did you say all these people had reality marbles?", she accused, "An ability that only develops under an incredibly twisted sense of reality?"

"H-Hold up there, Tohsaka," the Wizard Marshall stammered despite the vast difference in power, "Hell hath no fury indeed."

"You sent Shirou to a world of lunatics!"

* * *

Ritsuka stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a Tokiwadai uniform with her hospital robe under her arm. Mikoto glanced appraisingly over the girl, who's face was a slight shade more pink than when she entered.

"Not bad," she commented, ignoring the spike of jealousy as her spare shirt seemed a bit more tight on the other girl's body. "Do you have the temporary ID the Gekota doctor gave you?", Mikoto asked, reading over the email she was about to send to the dorm supervisor.

Ritsuka nodded, waving the plastic card before putting it into her skirt pocket. Tilting her head questioningly, she reached in and pulled 3 arcade tokens out, apprising them for a moment before smirking and offering them to Mikoto. "Are these yours?", she asked innocently.

A hand reached out to grab the tokens before stopping just short. "Ahhaha…. I don't know how those got there. I'm just going to confiscate those…", Mikoto muttered, taking the coins and putting them into her own pocket, where they landed with a set of clinks, further reddening her face.

"Anyway!", she announced, trying to regain her prim and proper appearance to little avail, "You're coming with Kuroko and I to our school for power testing! Your ability seems pretty versatile, and if it ranks equal or higher than Level 3, they can probably get you a scholarship to stay here! That way, you can have a place to live and a stipend to use while you recover your memories."

Ritsuka stood a bit stunned. "Huh, that's awfully generous of you all. Thank you." Pausing for a moment, "So, I'm guessing you have a pretty powerful ability then?"

Mikoto smiled mischievously as she withdrew a coin from her stash, opened the window in the room, and pointed towards the open sky. Electricity crackled ominously as she flipped the coin into the air, then a blinding yellow streak shot off from where the coin had been, accompanied by a sharp crack of thunder and a booming reverberation. She smiled proudly at Ritsuka's awestruck expression, before noticing that had gotten a bit dark in the room. She glanced at the hallway, also dark. Her smile slowly faded into an expression Ritsuka recognized as the universal 'oh shit', as she glanced around at the appliances only to find dark screens. A sudden sharp displacement of air along with a distinctly synthetic sound alerted them to the presence of another person in the room.

"Hold on! Kuroko, I can explain!"

"O-nee-sa-MA!"

* * *

Walking through an elaborate iron gate into a gorgeous vast garden, Ritsuka marveled at the multiple western buildings that make up the so-called 'middle school'. The two students accompanying her dropped their continued argument over Kuroko's paperwork and schoolwork balance, a knowing smile on their faces as they watched their new friend look around the bustling campus. Groups of students laughing, a bustling café, a few consoling each other with manila folders in hand. There were a few students napping on benches in the courtyard, a girl reading a book under a tree, a game of frisbee between several aerokinetic. It's been forever since Shirou Emiya had seen such a sight. So often had he experienced the worst that humanity had to offer, he had so nearly forgotten the world that he wanted to save. Ritsuka smiled, and for the first time in a long time, it was not the sardonic one that Archer wore. Noticing a change in their companion, the two espers beside her also quietly stopped for a moment, not understanding the surge of emotion, but knowing it wasn't their right to interrupt. The three girls stood there for a moment, letting the quiet breeze flow through their hair, before Ritsuka started forwards once more towards the halls of Tokiwadai.

* * *

"Fujimaru Ritsuka, right? Here for power testing?", the administrator asked in a professional tone of voice.

"Yes, ma'am.", replied Ritsuka.

The woman raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Ah, a polite one, I see. Since this assessment wasn't originally scheduled, we currently don't have a test ready that's customized for your purported ability. We have some general energy output measurements that we can pick from to get a rough rating through." She laid out a paper with several options, from attacking a calibrated force field to stopping increasingly powerful impacts.

Ritsuka glanced at Mikoto who was looking over her shoulder. "Which one of these did you go for?", she asked.

The woman's eyes widened as Mikoto laughed and said, "They didn't have a precise measuring tool that could withstand my railgun, so they just had me shoot the pool on high speed camera and record the speed and amount of water displaced. Why, you want to give that a go?"

Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah, I think I might be able to replicate something similar with my powers."

_"Many students say similar things every year, but I've never seen someone so honestly and without bravado, say 'Yeah, I think I can match The Railgun',"_ the administrator thought, as she started to fill out the power testing form. She would have objected on any other occasion, but the utter sincerity that Ritsuka said it with conveyed a confidence in her abilities that few possess.

Mikoto, too, was stunned. "Wait, I thought your specialty was bladed weapons. How hard are you planning to swing at the water?"

In response, Ritsuka projected a large crescent bow, about as tall as she was, with a black handguard and a metal cable for a string. "I have a feeling that I used to be pretty good at archery," she said, looking up and down at the bow with a sudden contemplative look.

"Young lady! Put that thing away! You'll be tested soon enough, so exercise some patience!" the administrator scolded, closing her laptop and filing the paperwork into her briefcase.

"Sorry…", Ritsuka sheepishly apologized as before shooting Mikoto a glare.

* * *

"Alright, we're set. Ready when you are, Miss Fujimaru!" the lab technician called from behind a massive array of cameras and sensors.

Misaka looked on from the side of the pool as her mysterious friend manifested the massive black bow again, arm falling under the weight. The whole thing was metal, her senses confirmed, an absurd material to make a bow out of. "How was she going to draw that thing?"

Blue light again blossomed in Ritsuka's other hand, growing into a long thin form. Misaka's eyes widened. _"That certainly isn't an arrow."_ A European longsword emerged in all it's glory, glistening in the dusk light. Blue sparks raced across the sword once again, visually similar to her own power but with no electrical signature. The metal flowed and twisted, becoming something akin to a large steel screw. What used to be the pommel was nocked into the metal cable of the bow, and a young girl slowly began to draw it back. Even from the sidelines, Misaka could hear the metal protesting as the projectile was drawn back. The girl held the bow at full draw for a moment, then a tower of water separated the two of them. Misaka stared as the water began raining down, revealing the redhaired girl lowering her now dissolving bow. Moments passed, then the intercom came on, the lab technician stuttering out, "Recorded projectile speed of 3100 m/s, estimated kinetic energy imparted of 7.207 megajoules."

"Overall rating: Level 5"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

According to an old reddit post, calculating the Mach cone of Archer's projectiles from the UBW anime, we can arrive at an estimated projectile speed of between 3000 and 3250 m/s, roughly Mach 9. Certainly explains the damage that those things cause when not firing Noble Phantasms. I considered making Ritsuka weaker than Archer, but considering how easily Kuro draws the bow, I'm just going to assume that Reinforcement picks up the slack there. More importantly, we've finally gotten to the concept that I've always wanted to see: Fate Reality Marbles = Toaru Personal Realities. I've always found it amusing how similar in nature they happen to be, an effect on the world based on the mental state of the user. Thus, Emiya could be easily considered a Level 5, perhaps even more…


	3. Chapter 2

Three days.

That's how long he's been stuck in this building, ever since he (No wait, it's _she_ now. Got to get used to that.) found himself in a completely different city, around the same decade but technologically more advanced by several. Found by teen girls, in the body of a teen girl, she got dragged around the city until she used her magic to turn a swimming pool into a geyser.

Big mistake. In attempting to secure lodging, she tried to match the feat of a nearly unmatched power. Turns out Mikoto was one of the seven most powerful espers in the city, not that she mentioned that, and matching the Railgun granted you several days lodging surrounded by scientists who think you're the next true magic. Not entirely unfamiliar territory, Rin had a field day when a dead apostle hunt ended up revealing his reality marble, and the researchers here seem to have much better morals than those at the Clocktower. On the bright side, there's finally time to think and get acquainted with the current situation.

This city, and this city alone, has a monopoly on espers, a word derived from Extrasensory Perception, which confusingly is one of the two categories of esper. Espers possess the ability to either sense or modify reality through thought, based on an invisible energy field around them called AIM. Their AIM stems from a Personal Reality, the acquisition of which requires one to be cut off from proper reality and achieving one that differs from their own, explaining why the researchers were incredibly happy when the psychiatrists reported neither psychopathy or sociopathy; merely retrograde amnesia, survivor's guilt, and a messiah complex. Apparently such traits were prevalent in Level 5s, affirmed by the dossier that had "DO NOT PROVOKE" written across half their names. Unsurprisingly then, the Railgun was marked as "the good one", the ranks of which Ritsuka would apparently be joining soon enough.

She smiled. Rin really had done it. Emiya Shirou was now free of his fate, free of Alaya, and granted a fresh start. In this world where her powers were accepted, where no magi could doom entire villages to eradication, where omnipotent wish-granting magics don't exist, perhaps she could make a difference.

She heard a knock on the door.

"Miss Fujimaru?", a black haired woman in a lab coat asked as she opened the door.

"Yes?" she replied, getting up from her temporary bed, still in a good mood.

"While the Board has all but confirmed that you will be joining the ranks of the Level 5s, the boys down in Quantum still want to run a few more tests on your Projections. Do you mind following me?", the woman informed.

Ritsuka gestured, "Lead the way."

* * *

Misaka Mikoto stood outside the entrance to a fairly nondescript building in District 1, tapping her foot impatiently. Looking around for a moment, she checked her phone, the Gekota charm dangling as she glared at the digital clock. Not quite… not quite… now! Men and women in professional attire filed out of the building, eager to get home, return to their families, and eat a hearty dinner. Between the suits and lab coats, a disheveled mop of red hair slouched out, wearing a white collared shirt bound together by two half belts across the chest and a larger belt around the waist. The black skirt, leggings, and white boots made for a fairly fashionable contrast, but it didn't seem like Ritsuka was alert enough to care. Quickly forgetting her irritation, Mikoto rushed over to her friend, who brightened up when she noticed her.

"What on earth did they do to you!", questioned Mikoto, as she held Ritsuka by her shoulders, examining her face.

"I'm…", Ritsuka yawned, "fine, thank you. The scientists just keep putting me through more tests, more tests, more tests…" She trailed off, a glazed blank look in her eyes. She blinked. "But I'm fine now! I think they'll be announcing the change to the roster tonight. Since they couldn't really measure my AIM field, and it appears that I'm a Gemstone, they'll just be assigning me Number 8, right next to Sogiita Gunha." She tilted her head, muttering sleepily, "Think Tokiwadai is willing to take me now?"

Misaka blinked at the bombardment of information, along with several bombshells that would soon hit the city. She smirked, "Oh, Nagaten Jouki Academy will never forgive us now."

"Who?", Ritsuka inquired.

"Nagaten Jouki Academy is the number one power development school in Academy City, however, they have no Level 5s. When they find out that Tokiwadai has gotten a third Level 5, they're going to flip." she explained smugly, a blatant display of school pride along with a hint of anticipation.

"_Alright, time to reign that in a bit,"_ Ritsuka mused, adopting an innocent aura. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know about the power surge we had today, would you?", she asked, deliberately not looking at the electromaster in question. Out of the corner of her eye, the Railgun flinched.

"I mean, it took the power out of the building for an hour, blew every fuse they had, even fried a backup generator. Heard that several districts still haven't got power back, you don't have anything to do with that, do you?", the Number 8 continued, savoring the embarrassment emanating from Number 3, until the sparks started crackling that is.

"Shut up!", a bolt of lightning lanced towards Ritsuka, striking instead a hastily projected metal spear that contacted the nearby storm drain.

"God, you're as bad as he is!", Mikoto fumed, annoyed that everyone seems to have developed a counter to her abilities.

Ritsuka raised an eyebrow, a massive grin appearing on her face. "He?"

Mikoto's face would put tomatos to shame.

* * *

Ritsuka pulled the Tokiwadai sweater over her head, despite the fact that summer break for the city's schools officially started today. Fumbling with the hair tie, she wondered how Rin survived her teen years, what with two fancy ribbons to secure each morning. She heard a knock at the door.

"One moment!", she called, smoothing her outfit out before walking over to the door.

"Good morning, Misa….. Oh.", Ritsuka looked at the blond bombshell standing in the hallway. "Why hello there, Mental Out."

"Hello, Miss Fujimaru. Please, just call me Misaki," she said, walking in with two others in tow. She sat down on the bed. "So you're the new Number 8?"

"That I am." Ritsuka replied. She paused for a moment. "Are you here for anything in particular?"

The Mental Out smiled sweetly, "No, no. Just welcoming a new student, that's all." She reached into her bag.

Ritsuka's eyes narrowed, subconsciously reinforcing herself.

A white gloved hand pulled out an equally white rectangular bar, which promptly found itself pinned to the wall by a silver sai.

Misaki blinked, turning to look at the bar of chocolate now acting as room décor. "My, my. Aren't you a cautious one?"

Ritsuka flushed, "I'm so sorry, it's just that they gave me a dossier and…"

Misaki laughed and waved it off. "It's all good. I suppose I'd be cautious too around an unfamiliar mind controller. Do tell, what did it say about me?"

"Hey Ritsuka! Saten and Uiharu are meeting up with Kuroko and I at Joesph's Cof….", the Railgun burst into the room, trailing off. She looked at the two other Level 5s, at Mental Out's entourage, and at the chocolate bar pinned to the wall. "Did I miss something?", she asked, thoroughly confused.

"Not really, I was just about to head out", Misaki replied, slipping her bag over her shoulder. "You two have fun!"

Misaka watched as the blonde walked out of the room, before turning back to Ritsuka.

"So… what happe… Ow! Hey!", a blast of electricity had emerged from her hair as she turned to glare at the retreating laughter down the hall.

* * *

Ritsuka held her head in her hands.

"So let me get this straight. The first day I was gone, you", she pointed at Saten, "got a makeover curtesy of a Dummy Check user who shouldn't have been that powerful. The same user then tried to use a taser on the Railgun. The next day," she continued, "you all were at the mall when it got bombed by a Synchrotron user, and the spiky haired Level 0 you like saved you." Ritsuka cut Mikoto's denials off, "Which you repaid by attempting to fry him to high heaven the next time you ran into him, taking out power across the whole city". Ritsuka's face hit the table. "No wonder you all found me. Like attracts like, and you all have the worst luck in the city."

Saten and Uiharu gave a laugh at the unflattering but apt summary, while Kuroko was muttering jealously. Mikoto glared at the newest addition to their group, face still tinged red.

"No, I don't, in fact, like that idiot", ignoring Ritsuka's muffled, _"Tsundere."_ "And besides, we have bigger problems to deal with, like this Level Upper that they both were using." Ritsuka noticed that Saten flinched at that mention. Mikoto went on, "Apparently, there's this thing that can boost the power of an esper's ability by about a level. Now normally, I'd be all for it, but it all sounds too good to be true. The city would be buying one for each and every esper in the Power Curriculum Program. More importantly, Kaitabi Hatsuya, the Graviton Bomber, fell into a coma yesterday in Anti-Skill custody. No record of brain damage, nor any trauma visible on the fMRI. It might be a coincidence, it might not. However I can't rule it out", she finished. The table sat silently.

Kuroko noticed and added on, "Anyway, I asked Dr. Kiyama Harumi to come over to the café today to give Judgement a primer on what she's found about those who said they've used the Level Upper. Hopefully she can help us understand why so many of them have turned to crime. We've arrested a dozen people yesterday who've claimed to have used it."

"Excuse me for a moment", Saten said, a tight smile on her face. "I really have to go to the bathroom, be back in a few."

Ritsuka watched her leave, thought for a second, and excused herself as well.

* * *

Saten stood in the bathroom, gripping a music player held high in the air, in position to smash it to the ground, but just standing there, holding it airborne.

"That's it, isn't it. The Level Upper?", Ritsuka asked, standing at the door.

"And so what if it is?", Saten replied sharply.

Ritsuka stayed silent for a second, then starting, "I know how you feel…"

"Bullshit!", Saten shouted, "You! The latest Level 5? At least Misaka worked her way up from Level 1! You're a Gemstone, you don't know how it is, to be sitting at a table surrounded by two Level 5s and a level 4, listening to incredible tales that you will never be more than a spectator to! To get into a dangerous situation and be nothing more than a liability! Just before we found you, Kuroko took down three bank robbers, Misaka totaled a fleeing car, and I got kicked in the face! Even Uiharu has a power, and even if she didn't, she knows her way around a computer that put professionals to shame. And then there's me." She had quieted down at this point, no longer yelling, but still she pressed on, "Saten Ruiko, Level 0. Nothing of note, nothing to speak of." She looked down at the MP3 player, "and then they gave me hope. A chance to finally be able to achieve something." She swallowed, "Then they dashed it."

Saten gave Ritsuka a tearful look, "So tell me, tell me that you know how I feel. Look me in the eye and say with absolute sincerity that you of all people know how I feel."

Ritsuka glanced down, "I'd be a hypocrite if I told you not to engage in self destructive actions in an effort to do more than you could before, but you're wrong about one thing. I didn't always have this power."

Saten narrowed her eyes, "I thought you were a Gemstone. And more importantly, I thought you didn't remember your past?"

Ritsuka thought for a bit. "I don't remember my original life. Not a trace of memory about my biological parents remains. I remember that I had an adoptive father. I remember having some very minor abilities, nothing like what I can do today, and using them wrong for a very long time. Apparently, I had damaged my nervous system for years, trying to gain power through a shortcut. Now, it might not be what you wanted to hear, but what you're holding in your hand? That's a shortcut. You decide if it's worth taking, if you can accept the risks."

Saten considered her words. "And what if I decide that it's worth the risk?"

"Then I won't stop you", Ritsuka said. "However, I'd at least tell Mikoto, Uiharu, and Kuroko about your find. It might help them in their investigation, and knowing more about it is never a bad thing. I'll defend whatever decision you make. If anything happens, you won't be alone."

Saten looked at Ritsuka, taking in what she said. Nodding the slightest bit, she quietly replied.

"Okay."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I got to say, I underestimated the amount of feedback, positive and negative, that I'd receive for writing between the ToAru and Fate universes, two notoriously dedicated fandoms. Thank you, all of you, for reading my work and providing all kinds of informative and educational responses. I really do appreciate every bit of it. Now, about this timeline. I've pulled up the definitive Unified Story Timeline from the ToAru wiki, and I'll be using it as the perfect source to deviate from canon. I've got several things planned that will rapidly devolve the Index/Railgun timeline as it stands and I'm excited to see how it all plays out. If any ToAru fans would like to help me look over the proposed worldline and give me ideas on how the universe should appropriately react, feel free to PM me. For now, incarnationofcode, signing off.


	4. Chapter 3

"God, you guys are the absolute worst at acting stealthy," Ritsuka said, glaring at the trio of nosy girls as they nursed their bruises. She sighed, "That was supposed to be a _private_ conversation. Do any of you seem to know the meaning of private?"

Kuroko glanced up, responding dryly, "Well, after the shouting that could be heard from out here, that whole privacy thing sort of goes out the window."

Saten flushed, still looking away as Ritsuka comforted her.

Uiharu slid off her Judgement armband, then nursed the back of her head where Kuroko's forehead had met. "In hindsight, we could have done without the whole ears to the door thing. Sorry Saten."

Saten was quiet for a moment, before responding, "I… It's alright. I'm just sorry that you all had to hear all that." Cutting off their assurances, she continued, "No, really. I said some things that while not completely false, were worse in the heat of the moment. I swear, I don't hate my life as is right now. I've got quite a few good friends, some of which take me on some fun and exciting adventures." she said, smiling slightly. "It's just that I sometimes wish that I could participa…Eh! Misaka?", she exclaimed as the Railgun enveloped her in a hug from behind.

Mikoto held the embrace, taking a second before answering, "I know I can't say much. They say I worked up from Level 1 to where I am now, but that doesn't give much hope to those at Level 0, does it? I… I suppose I could say something like: 'Just keep working at it! You'll get there eventually!', but that would just be disingenuous. So, I just want you to know that we're here for you. You can tell us anything, and we'll do our best to help."

Saten blinked rapidly, grabbing a napkin off the café table as she choked out, "Thank you all."

Misaka smiled as she pulled back from the embrace. Kuroko too, was smiling, though at her dormmate, with a hint of gratitude and pride. Uiharu reached forward across the table to grab a napkin of her own, and Ritsuka felt the somber mood from a second ago melt away, much like the ice cream desserts still on the table.

"Umm, am I interrupting something?", said the woman standing in the open, a little ways away from the table, with wavy brown hair that reached her shoulders and dark bags under her eyes.

* * *

A few minutes later, with refreshments ordered and 6 people squeezed into benches that comfortably accommodate a family of four, the serious conversation began.

"So, have you found out anything on the Level Upper?", Kuroko began, as Mikoto squinted at the music player Saten handed her, holding it at different angles while thinking deeply.

"As of right now, not much.", replied Dr. Kiyama, glancing at the music player repeatedly. "fMRI scans of the Graviton Bomber shows that while he's displaying most of the symptoms of a coma, his mind is unusually active, as much if not more so than if he was awake. Particularly notable is the high activity in the frontal lobe, especially in the left half. While there has been an uptick of crime related to Level Upper use, Judgement has brought in several people who submitted themselves in for questioning, including one Judgement member who has used it themselves. From their interviews, it seems that the use of Level Upper itself does not have a noticeable effect on general mood and attitude, leading us to believe that the related uptick in crime is merely a result of disaffected kids drunk on power. Those who've used it claim that Level Upper is audio that'd been streamed to them over a custom app that requires a code, so we haven't been able to acquire a copy of the audio."

"Well," she again looked at the music player Mikoto was holding, "at least until now. I'm assuming that there's a ripped copy on that one then?"

Mikoto finally looked up, "There's absolutely nothing special about this music player, besides a missing fuse in the charging circuit, but that's probably just from cutting corners. A few pop songs, several vocaloid albums, some preloaded jingles, and one curious 600 MB file called 'level_ '. Sounds like white noise interspersed with random sounds, goes on for 15 minutes though." She looked at the doctor, "You have a flash drive on hand? I'll make you a copy."

Eyes with enough bags for a full grocery run widened as the woman rummaged in her purse. Pulling out a plastic stick, she handed it to Mikoto, who held it for a moment before scowling. "4 gigs? What is this, 2005?", she grumbled as small static discharges arced off her hands, one holding the MP3 player, the other pinching the plastic stick. "There. One copy of digital contraband." she said, handing back the drive, which Kiyama examined with uncharacteristic amusement before putting into her purse.

"What I don't get is how an audio file increases people's powers," Mikoto said, leaning back in her seat. "I mean, abilities grow in strength in relation to a person's Personal Reality and calculation ability. Sound shouldn't be able to change someone's perception of the world or their math skills." She chuckled, "If only you could just listen to some audio and know a semester's worth. At least then I wouldn't have to listen to Mr. Kuzuki drone on every morning."

The student's cracked a smile, as did Kiyama, though her expression could better be described as wistful.

"Thank you, kids, for delivering this to me. I'll bring this over to the hospital so we can begin analyzing it, along with testing it's effects to accurately figure out how it works.", Kiyama concluded, rising from her seat and picking up her purse. She got three steps away before a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Dr. Kiyama!", Saten called, standing up.

The doctor looked back at her, wearing the slightly blank expression that she walked in with.

"If Judgement needs people to test on, I'll volunteer!", the black-haired girl said resolutely. A hand grabbed onto Saten's arm. She looked around to find Ritsuka, as well as all the others looking at her.

"Are you sure about this?", Ritsuka asked, in the same tone as their discussion prior.

"I'm sure", Saten affirmed. "Compared to rest of the Power Development Curriculum, what's listening to some sounds for a bit?" She looked up, expecting to look Dr. Kiyama in the eyes and repeat the same statement.

Instead, the doctor was gone. 

Just outside the café, in the alley behind the building, Kiyama Harumi cried.

* * *

"Mind if I follow you on your patrols?", Ritsuka asked.

Kuroko looked away from Mikoto and Uiharu, both of which were engrossed in technobabble as they stared at waveforms on the screen. Saten sat next to them, fiddling with a small wooden charm.

"No, of course not. Why do you ask?", the teleporter replied, slipping on her armband.

"Well, both you and Uiharu are in Judgement, and seeing what you guys do on a daily basis, I was wondering should help out. You know, protecting the public and all.", Ritsuka said, rubbing the back of her neck.

Kuroko gave a sly smile. "Oh, wouldn't that be interesting. A Level 5 in the ranks of Judgment. Your mere existence might reduce crime rates in the area."

Ritsuka raised an eyebrow, "I thought Misaka helps out all the time?"

"I wouldn't quite say she helps out," Kuroko said slowly, "It's kind of like a forest fire plane that happens to spot a burning building and drops a load onto it. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong crime, and you might find a railgun aimed at you. Even if she wanted to, she causes so much disruption herself that she'd have her armband taken away by the end of the first week."

The target of said slander glared at the twintailed teleporter, who rolled her eyes. "You know it's true. Why did the milk in our dorms go bad again? Ah right, because you took out half the city over a boy. Don't you den… Oh would you look at the time, come on Ritsuka, time is ticking, sparky is crackling", she singsonged before grabbing Ritsuka's hand and blinking out of existence.

"…KUROKO!"

* * *

Ritsuka dismissed the daggers pinning the hooligan against the wall, catching the man by his dark leather jacket as Kuroko pulled another set of zip-ties out of her skirt.

"Is it always this busy?", she asked Kuroko.

"Haven't quite seen anything like it," she replied, binding the hands of the man behind his back, propping him up against the wall, then walking away to call Anti-Skill.

Ritsuka watched her round the corner before turning her attention to the man, who merely glared at the redhead as he took notice of her gaze.

"What the hell do you want?", the man said gruffly.

"Why?", Ritsuka asked calmly.

"Why what?", came the response. "Why did I attack you? Why did I go after the bastards that put Takeshi behind bars for just taking a little from an automated convenience store? The same store that replaced him with a damn Roomba a month before, despite even though they knew he had a sister to provide for. Why was I dumb and eager to get payback against this whole damn city of lab rats? Why the hell do you care?"

As he spoke, his voice carried an underlay of others, fading in and out subtly as the air became slightly distorted.

_"I thought I'd get even." "Against the city that threw us to the wayside once we couldn't progress any more." "Those damn Level 2s, thinking that they were so much better."_

The distortion grew, a tinge of green in the air as a nebulous bubble formed.

_"I tried, I tried so hard." "All I want is for them to wake up, I'll do anything for that." "If I get into a good school, mom won't have to work as hard anymore."_

The man started breathing heavily, tugging against his restraints for a moment before the tension began to fade.

_"Anyone… would want to be… an esper."_

As quickly as it came, the miasma dispersed. The man slumped over, hitting the ground with a soft thump.

Ritsuka blinked, standing there for a moment, and ran to find Kuroko.

* * *

"You're back awfully late. What took you two so long? Saten already went home.", Uiharu asked, her face still lit by the vast array of screens around her as the sky outside began to redden.

"Had to accompany one of the criminals we found to the hospital, and also to get this one's head checked", Kuroko replied, gesturing at the apologetic redhead. "Apparently she started seeing ghosts, and hearing voices."

"I wasn't hearing things! Strange effects happened when Level Upper sent this guy into a coma", Ritsuka defended, mildly indignant.

"You sure that wasn't just covering up smacking him upside the head? You hit like a truck when surprise attacked", Kuroko replied teasingly.

"You know I wouldn't do with someone who can't fight back, besides, those were clear and distinct voices, I know I heard it.", Ritsuka insisted. "Uiharu? Are there any powers that connect a whole bunch of people?"

"One moment, I'll look it up", Uiharu said, swiveling her chair around.

"I'll leave this goose chase to you two then", she said, grabbing her bookbag before walking over to the couch, where Mikoto sat, reading a translated copy of _Never Let Me Go_ by Kazuo Ishiguro. "How's summer reading going?", the teleporter asked, leaning over to see the cover.

"Pretty good," she replied, "Got about a third through the book. Not a bad book this year either."

"Ready to go back to the dorm?", Kuroko asked, offering a hand.

Mikoto aimed a half smile, half glare at her roommate, "Oh? Still offering to work with the unhelpful loose cannon, then?"

Kuroko rolled her eyes. "Still mad about that?"

"Maybe," Mikoto replied, "Maybe I just want to finish one more chapter."

Kuroko let out a short sigh, before pushing off the sofa. "Have it your way. See you back at the dorms, don't be too late!"

The girl disappeared from sight, a loud plop on the sidewalk outside following soon after.

Mikoto looked back over towards Uiharu's battlestation. "Ritsuka! Uiharu! When are you two leaving?"

"In an little bit!", Ritsuka replied, not taking her eyes off the screen. A fair number of ability users showed up, from Edasaki Banri to Shokuhou Misaki. Interestingly enough, Kiyama Harumi was also listed as possessing the ability Telepathy. However, Telepathy was theorized to utilize an invisible wire of sound from one user to another which was then directly transcoded into the mind, with nothing explaining the mass of green plasma that Ritsuka claimed to have witnessed.

Uiharu sighed. "Another dead end", she said, leaning back in her chair, "Alright, I'm toast. Who wants to grab a bubble tea before heading back to the dorms?"

Mikoto raised her hand as Ritsuka thought about it for a moment. "I think I've heard of it, but I don't think I've ever had it before." she admitted.

The other two girls gaped, eyes wide.

"You've never had bubble tea before?", Misaka asked incredulously.

Uiharu planted her fist into her palm. "Alright, that settles it! U Tea it is!

* * *

Ritsuka examined the overly sturdy plastic cup with an indecisive gaze.

"I give up. It's an offense to tea everywhere. Powered milk, excessive ice, and far too much sugar. Not to mention that someone put chewy food into my drink. And yet it's delicious." she grudgingly admitted, taking another sip.

"Woo! Another convert to the religion!" Uiharu cheered, holding her tea up in triumph.

The cup of holy drink, basking in the dusk rays shining through the tall pillars of steel and glass, came tumbling down, hitting the ground with enough force to dislodge the gate to heaven, spilling it's majesty across the concrete.

A spiky haired boy with black hair landed next to it, having tripped over his shoelace a second prior. Turning around, apologizing profusely, his face paled at the sight of a sparking brunette.

"You!", Mikoto shouted, an accusatory finger pointed, emphasized by the wreath of lightning starting to form.

"I…", Touma started, still processing the latest turn of events.

"You owe me an explanation after all that! I can't believe you'd just freaking leave after grabbing me in that alley! Do you have any idea…", Mikoto's voice trailed off.

Touma, in all his infinite wisdom, had decided in that moment that the best course of action would be to sprint in the opposite direction of the shouting girl with lighting spewing off her.

"That bastard!", Mikoto growled before giving chase.

Ritsuka watched as Mikoto ran off, before handing Uiharu her drink.

"Have the rest of mine. I'm going to go that way; make sure that nothing irreversibly unfortunate happens tonight." she said before sprinting off after the Railgun.

Uiharu absently took a sip from the drink, still staring blankly.

Her eyes cleared, she looked down at the drink she was holding and has just drank from.

She lightly blushed.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Finally, the protagonist of the core series appears… for a one letter word and an ellipsis. Don't worry, he's not going to take over the plot, though he will likely show up in not insignificant amounts in the stories ahead. On general story logistics, while I'm excited to keep writing now that I've got quite a bit of plot planned out, college is also back in session, so expect slower updates. I have left a hint in this chapter to where the college is, kudos for people who find it. Also, if you haven't read _Never Let Me Go_, I highly recommend it. I'm also recommending Makoto Shinkai's newish movie, _Weathering With You_, if you guys haven't seen it yet. See you all in the next update!


	5. Chapter 4

Rin had always called him a bloodhound for mystical phenomenon. It had saved his ass once before, finding Rider's sigils all across his high school. When on Dead Apostle hunts, the enforcers greatly valued Emiya's expert tracking skills, capable of following a trail that others wouldn't have noticed. His sense of smell was very sharp, an ability that came into excellent use, following the scent of ozone through the streets of Academy City.

Of course, the ozone was real, as was the screaming of an unfortunate black-haired boy and an incensed brunette tsundere.

"Get back here, you massive idiot!", a voice echoed off in the distance.

"Only an idiot would stop ru… Gah! What the hell! Are you trying to kill me?", a panicked voice fired back.

"Like you'd die from that! Agh! Stop completely denying my powers!", the first voice cried, frustrated.

"No! Because then, you'd kill me!", the second replied, nearly as high pitched as the first.

Ritsuka internally let out a deep sigh as she reinforced her legs slightly, increasing in speed from an average teenage girl's jog to the pace of an Olympic sprinter. As the energy began to infuse into her muscle fibers, the scent of ozone began to mix with a tinge of burning polymer. "Right, not wearing combat boots right now. Have to keep that in mind.", she noted as she packed Od into the faux leather and rubber of the school uniform loafers.

The street she was running along intersected with a perpendicular road up ahead, largely barren as most students had headed home for the night. Beyond the road was a wide empty patch of grass field that bordered a canal. The sun's crimson rays lapped across the waves of grass, a gorgeous sight. It was rather rudely disturbed by the massive bolts of lighting emerging from one girl hand and arcing to a boy's outstretched palm, an very loud and interesting take on the traditional high-five.

"What on Earth is wrong with you!", the boy yelled, examining the hand where the bolt had nearly connected.

"Why. Won't. You. Just. Let. Me. Hit. You!", the accused replied, punctuating each word with short thunderclaps.

The two of them leapt and dodged past each other in an imitation of playground tag, until Mikoto paused in her chase and held out one hand.

A stream of black particles emerged from the ground, coalescing in a shimmering dark blade extending from her hand.

"I've got you now!", she proclaimed gleefully, leaping forward, only to be interrupted by a massive chiseled rock landing between the girl and her target.

Another girl landed next to the electromaster, sending a light plume of dirt into the air. Ritsuka blinked a few times, staring at Mikoto's weapon, before grabbing the brunette by the shoulders and pushing her up against the newly formed wall.

"What the hell are you thinking!", the redhead asked disbelievingly, unsure as to where this sudden need for murder had arose.

"What! What did I do?", Mikoto asked, unclear as to why her friend was so upset.

"That! In your hand! That could cut someone in half!", Ritsuka exclaimed, pointing at the offending tool. "And nevermind blasting him with lightning, why are you chasing after him at all?

Mikoto blinked. "I… Err… The idiot left me to dry after the whole power outage thing! Anyway, he would have been fine!", she reasoned.

"How does that equate to randomly attacking a civilian? Wasn't the power outage your fault?", Ritsuka rebuked, landing a critical blow on Mikoto's thought processes.

"Well… I… Waah!", she exclaimed, as the stone slab disappeared behind her, her accuser earning a face full of Tokiwadai summer uniform as the electromaster fell backwards onto a not particularly soft mat.

"Gah! Owww…", the mat whined, groaning under the sudden addition of a little over 90 kilos suddenly atop him.

Ritsuka pushed herself off the awkward pile, trying to keep her composure and maintain the rapidly fading illusion of anger as she brushed herself off.

"What was that? I didn't dispel that projection, so it certainly shouldn't have failed that quickly", she thought aloud, looking around for any other explanation before her eyes settled on the boy extricating himself from beneath Mikoto.

"Err. Sorry. That was my bad. I was curious if that was real so I decided to touch it.", the spiky-haired boy explained, ignoring the rapidly reddening Mikoto.

"And that would cause it to disappear how?", Ritsuka lead, still confused as to what had just occurred.

"My right hand cancels out any supernatural abilities. Don't ask me how, I don't know either.", he replied, brushing the grass off his shirt. "Thanks for the save, err…"

"Sh…Ritsuka. Fujimaru Ritsuka", the redhead replied, extending a hand, "And you are?"

"Touma. Kamijou Touma", the boy answered, reaching out to accept the handshake.

A blast of lightning struck between them, followed by the shouts of an angry electromaster.

"Stop ignoring me!", Mikoto demanded, her face still crimson, though from anger or embarrassment Ritsuka couldn't tell.

Ritsuka turned to glare at her friend of a few days, "Alright. That's it. What the hell is up with you and solving all your problems with violence! You're a Level 5, a person rated the equivalent of a small army. You cannot go around tossing around the wrath of god at civilians willy-nilly!"

Mikoto stared at Ritsuka. "But he can take it", she replied blankly.

"And how exactly did you find that out?", Ritsuka pressed.

Mikoto thought for a moment, opening her mouth briefly before realizing her mistake.

"Oh", she mumbled.

"Alright then. You seem to have gotten into a bit of a habit there. Do tell, how often do you tase someone?", Ritsuka questioned.

Mikoto stayed quiet for a bit longer, deep in thought. "A couple times a day", she admitted.

Ritsuka blinked. "Wow. I… uh. Huh. And there's been no casualties so far?", she asked incredulous.

"What? No! Sure, they've been the one or two that had to go to the hospital, but those were all thugs and criminals!", Mikoto replied.

Ritsuka sighed, gathering her thoughts. "Then you've been lucky so far. If you'd struck someone with a pacemaker or an insulin pump, they would have died. Tasers have killed into the hundreds of people in similar ways, and I'm quite certain your blasts are both higher voltage and higher amperage. When you blacked out the city, people on life support in their homes could have died. Hospitals could have lost power, as could have many robotic systems controlling dangerous applications. You're very fortunate that his city is mostly full of young and healthy people, brand new infrastructure, and esper-resistant building codes. In any other place, you might have a death toll of hundreds."

Mikoto stared wide-eyed at the redhead, her eyes becoming watery.

"Wait no! Hey, hey. It's ok. You haven't done anything irreversible yet! There's all the time in the world to change your habits!", Ritsuka quickly said, backtracking on her admonishment in light of current circumstances. Even Touma seemed sorry for her… wait.

Ritsuka closed her eyes and sighed, before a slight grin grew on her face. "It's alright, Mikoto. I'm just trying to keep you from killing your boyfriend.", she teased, in an exaggerated tone of exasperation.

The brunette paused for a moment, before her face immediately went red.

"B…Boyfriend? With this idiot!", Mikoto exclaimed, though for a moment there Ritsuka swore she saw black twintails.

Happy to see that the diversion had worked, Ritsuka decided to double, triple, and quadruple down.

"Well, he was the dazzling hero who saved you. The knight in shining armor that reached out a hand and pulled you away from an encirclement of neerdowells.", Ritsuka noted, completely twisting what little tidbits of the story she managed to squeeze out of Mikoto.

"It wasn't like that!", Touma protested, waving his hands around wildly.

Huh, the reddening was contagious.

"It's no wonder that you'd fall for him.", Ritsuka concluded, one arm propped by another in one of Tohsaka's lecturing stances. She looked critically at Touma for a moment. "Though he could do to fix up that hair."

Tree Diagram's sensors noted a deviation between the weather below and the predictive simulation. A process was spun off from the main thread, dedicated to accurately modeling this recent phenomenon of "cloud cover independent static discharge".

"Do you mind if we exchange numbers?", Ritsuka asked, offering her recently acquired cellular device. The sun had long since set, thankfully, so that the puffed cloud of red hair atop her head was hidden in the dim street lamps. It had taken nearly an hour of running, dodging, and throwing the high schooler at the middle schooler to convince the living taser to calm down. Said brunette had then headed off for the dorms, but not before vowing revenge on the Eighth Ranked. Ritsuka looked warily in the direction home, praying to whatever benevolent deities of this world that the path back held no sparky ambushes.

Touma blinked, thinking through her request. "Sure, what for?", he said, handing over his older phone.

"You seem to get into a lot of troublesome situations. If you ever need help, or need a stray Level 5 pulled off you, feel free to call me.", Ritsuka responded, tapping on the device several times before handing it back over.

Touma thought for a moment, reminiscing through the recent spree of absurd events. While he hated to bother others with his problems, it couldn't hurt to know those who could help him out of a jam. Returning the smile, he replied, "Thanks, and likewise."

As they turned away from one another, a stray thought ran through both their heads.

"That worked out surprisingly well. Maybe my luck is looking up?"  
_

Walking back through a darkened Academy City was truly a frightening thing. Nearly deserted streets, empty shops, and dim alleys almost everywhere. For a young girl to be walking around in such a setting would be unthinkable, but considering the Tokiwadai uniform she wore, chances are that an threat to her life wouldn't be around for too long. While school uniforms have been customary in Japan for quite some time, students at the most prestigious schools in the city even wear them during summer break, with knockoff ones not particularly uncommon among students of other schools. Anyone with nefarious intentions risks bodily harm in a myriad of esoteric ways if they turn their attention to one of these students.

The red-haired girl walked down the street with that kind of self assured attitude, calmly taking in the starless city sky. A happy little jingle began to play, interrupting the silence. It took a moment for Ritsuka to recognize the ringtone as her own, taking the new device out of her pocket and putting it up to her ear.

"Help! Index was attacked! I… there's a massive pool of blood around her. I don't know what hap…", the voice came through over the earpiece, panic clearly audible.

With that, the calm night was shattered. Ritsuka had already spun around before she realized it, reinforcing her limbs to their limits as she ran in the direction that Touma had left toward. Asphalt blasted back under the pressure of each step, light prints of what appeared to be a schoolgirl's shoes left in her wake.

A burst of noise and a the clattering of plastic came through the line, and another man's voice could be heard in the background. "Hm? Well, that would be us. Magicians."

"Touma! Touma! Where are you!", Ritsuka shouted into the speaker, hoping that it could get through to him over the sound of the wind.

"Well we can't have that, now can we." "No! Don't come for me, it's dangero…", two distinct voices spoke over one another, just before a whooshing sound overwhelmed them both before the line cut out.

"Damn! Alright. High School age, Male's dorms, probably District 7… Gah. I don't know where those would be!", she thought, turning down a different street. Spotting a fairly high building as she approached the district, she leapt upwards onto the emergency staircase several stories up, immediately crushing Olympic high jump records. With another leap, the fourth floor guardrail gained a new dent, and the girl landed a few stories higher. Several seconds later, Ritsuka stood atop the building, Archer's bow in hand, pumping Od into her eyes.

"Where are you, where could you…" A bright flare emerged from the seventh story of a building several blocks away. "Ah, there you are."

Immediately visible were a black haired boy in a white shirt, holding his hand out protectively. Behind him was a swarm of trashcan shaped cleaning bots, slowly orbiting a white and red figure slumped over. In front of the boy stood a much taller man, with crimson hair and fire wreathing his hand. It barely took a split second to level the bow at the pyromancer, less then that to form the longsword that she would alter to form the arrow. However, as the blade passed through the skull of the man in her mind's eye, she paused.

It would be so incredibly natural just to loose the arrow, let it fly like it had thousands of times before. Like it had with the man with the AK, who's belt carried a kitchen knife from a home he no longer had. Like it had with the boy in the baseball cap, whose backpack was full of teenage anger and delusions, only made heavier by the hi-cap Glock mags inside. Like it had with the girl in green, who just might have survived the transition to Dead Apostle and saved herself from the malignant tumor in her own circuits, if it had not been interrupted by 3 feet of steel. Each shot had saved lives, or so Emiya had reasoned, taking each subsequent life with ever-vindicating ease. This shot would be no different, one life lost for two lives saved, perhaps many more from potential flames engulfing a student dorm at night, and even more beyond that may be attacked by this pyromaniac.

However, there was a time where Emiya refused to partake in the treacherous activity of human arithmetic. Before life had broken the dream down, before impossible choices became mundane. Here, in a new world, as a new self, in a new life, there was a chance to do things differently. The bow stopped trembling.

Fujimaru Ritsuka tilted the bow down, just a slight bit.

*BOOM*

A blast of dust arose in front of Touma, where the fire magician had been standing moments before. Moments later, the sound hit, followed by fragments of concrete pelting downwards. As the dust settled, it became immediately apparent where the man had gone.

A large portion of the floor itself was no more, several meters of concrete pulverized by a surgical strike. There, on the sixth floor, lie a pile of debris, along with a now grey colored fire magician, coated in the remains of what had recently been school property. There was a cut across the barcode under his eye, a slightly red tinted piece of exposed rebar nearby seemed to be the culprit.

Touma winced. "Yup, that's a tetanus shot", he thought in sympathy.

A crashing of concrete nearby heralded the arrival of his red haired savior, as a young girl impacted the already damaged floor with great force.

"Touma! Are you alright?", she asked, looking him over briefly with worried eyes.

"Y..yeah. I'm fine. Help Index!", he stuttered out, still looking over the carnage.

"Already on it.", Ritsuka replied, as she kneeled over the fallen nun. In her hand, she held a large metal first aid it, the back of which still dangled several plaster coated screws from where it used to be mounted to a wall. She pulled apart what remained of Index's habit where the blade had gone through, exposing the wound to air. A liberal application of Neosporin was applied to the site, which she quickly wrapped up in many layers of gauze, applying pressure to the gash. Placing a hand atop the girl's stomach, Ritsuka directed a light stream of prana into her body, ready to run a structural analysis.

Green eyes flashed open, "Intrusion detected. John's Pen mode now active."

A light halo bloomed around the young nun as the monotone voice continued, "'C'. Spell Intercept Failed. Warning: If intrusion attempt is not halted, further countermeasures will be taken."

Ritsuka immediately pulled her hand back, staring intently at the girl before looking over at Touma, who was watching the scene play out.

"Did you know that would happen?", she asked sharply, mind racing at the newfound knowledge. Touma's assailant wasn't just calling their esper abilities an esoteric name, there are genuine magic societies and magic in this world as well, separate from the gained supernatural abilities of espers. When Index had spoken that letter, a wave of magic had emanated from the silver-haired girl. While she couldn't tell much from the energy itself other than the scent of a library it carried in its signature, it was likely the "Spell Intercept" the voice mentioned.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a burst of magic emanating from behind Touma, followed swiftly by a wave of light and heat as a golem of fire rose up from the floor below.

A voice spoke up from below, "Fortis931."

The flames flared in intensity. An infernal crusader, outfitted with smoldering cross, strode out of the blaze. The metal handles on nearby doors began to droop, melting away like a Salvador Dali.

Ritsuka's eyes widened. "Touma. Get behind me." she commanded, walking forward towards the humanoid monstrosity.

Touma turned around in shocked protest. "What? No! I…"

"Get behind me! Can you guarantee that you'd come out of that unscathed? What if you get thrown into one of those molten pieces of metal? Let me handle this", Ritsuka demanded, grabbing him by the collar before shoving him behind her.

The flaming cross swung towards them, embers trailing in it's wake.

"Trace On!", the girl shouted as she brought her hand out in front of her. "Rho Aias!"

An iridescent flower bloomed into existence, seven layers of transparent shielding expanding into place. The flaming cross impacted the shield with great force, only to bounce off lightly. Lifting the cross up with two burning hands, the spectre brought it down hard against the translucent barrier, a wave of flames rushing out to the sides revealing an intact surface. The giant flame god who's name meant certain death swung again at the pink flower between it and a red-haired middle school girl, again to no avail. Both arms fell to its sides in confusion, looking into the eyes of an equally confused young girl.

"I… I don't know why I expected better", Ritsuka admitted, wielding one of the strongest conceptual defenses in her arsenal.

"Err. Hey, fire mage! Are you going to dismiss this construct anyone soon?", she called down to the floor below.

"Hah! Like you're in any position to bargain. Burn them to ashes, Innocentius!", the voice responded.

"That's the thing. It can't. It's not doing any damage to my shield, however I can probably find a way to hit you from here," Ritsuka replied.

"Wait. Really? That's one of my most powerful spells!", the voice called up from below.

"I don't know what to tell ya. All it's doing right now is slouching and sinking into the concrete.", the girl said, honestly sounding a tad bit apologetic.

"That can't be right. It's virtually unstoppable. How…" A smack of fist against face could be heard from the floor below, followed a ringing of steel, then a slumping thud that Ritsuka knew all too well. Her suspicions were confirmed when she looked behind her and saw only Index lying there. Looking back towards Innocentius, the being just dejectedly petered out, leaving burning doors and a puddle of molten rock.

She leaned over the ledge, and sure enough, there he was, standing over the pyromancer's unconscious body clenching his fist proudly. He looked up at Ritsuka, seemingly satisfied with his work. She stared back, annoyed.

"I had that."

Author's Notes:

I just realized that I had Gudako's name wrong this whole time. It's Fujimaru, not Fujimura, and somehow no pedants called me out on it. On the subject of plot, I've got a timeline planned out, where the actions of these past few days will begin to have an impact on the world as a whole. Actually, I would have otherwise gotten to a bit more butterfly effect by now if I hadn't realized that the night of Misaka's meeting with Touma, Stiyl also attacked. One of inspired a very large plot point down the line that I've been very eager to get to, but at this pace we'll get there in 6 or so chapters. We'll be getting back to the Railgun crew next chapter, so keep an eye out for that!

Edit: For all those upset at the pacing of this chapter, I agree, and have thus taken an hour to rewrite several parts, adding a thousand more words. There's some modifications to Ritsuka and Mikoto's interactions, a bit more worldbuilding, and a slight change of words to better fit Touma's boneheaded heroism.


	6. Q&A 1

In lieu of another chapter, I've taken the time to draw up some cover art for this fic!

Yes, it might have taken more time to create than it would have to release Chapter 5, but I felt that this was worthwhile.

[Link- Imgur] imgur⸼com／V5l4Yjd⸼jpg

_Really? No links at all, FFN? I get it, user safety and all, but that does somewhat restrict creativity just a tad…_

Now, let's answer a few questions of yours! I've been doing a few more of these on SpaceBattles, as that's a forum rather than a direct content hosting site, so if you'd like more real-time feedback to your comments, that's the site to visit.

* * *

**Personal Reality Marbles - Q/A #1**

Why did I genderbend Shirou/De-age him?

\- I have a bit too much respect for the Touma/Misaka ship to just throw Shirou in as is (especially if he's nearing 40). For the sake of more natural interactions with the Railgun cast, he needs to be roughly their age. It also happens that Tokiwadai is an all-girls middle school, so while I'm not a fan of genderswaps myself, it does make practical sense in this case. Thank you F/GO for providing the appropriate character design, it was between this and the whole "Illya wishcrafts Shirou her body at the end of Heaven's Feel" path.

Why Zelretch?

\- Simple and effective plot initiator, one that I won't be using in the story beyond just getting it launched. He's an interesting character that should be explored by someone with much more Typemoon knowledge than me. In my case, he's akin to the Martian windstorm Andy Weir uses: potentially inaccurate, but kicks it off nicely plotwise.

Why is Ritsuka ranked #8?

\- This was largely a matter of me finding changing the numbers distracting. While UBW likely has a hard counter to almost any of the Level 5s, he's hasn't displayed any mysteries yet that delve past Projection, Reinforcement, and Alteration. Moreover, just imagine the confusion if he gained the rank of "Number 2". Suddenly, "the Number 3 Level 5" refers to Dark Matter, and Meltdowner would be Number 5. Absolute insanity. Luckily, Ritsuka fits in nicely next to Gunha, both possessing hard to describe BS versatile abilities, along with a hero complex.

Reality Marble vs Personal Reality (Notto Disu Shitto Agen)

\- While conducting research between the wikis, I've found only one main distinction: how complete the boundary between the inner world and the regular world is. AIM stems from a Personal Reality that is "cut off from proper reality and achieving one that differs from ours" - ToAru wiki. Reality Marbles are similar "projection of one's inner world onto reality" originally through "Alien Common Sense" (TypeMoon wiki). Thus, how they differ in function is how complete the replacement is. Esper abilities overlay on reality, overlapping with it in a field called AIM. Reality Marbles displace reality, replacing and sealing off the regular world when fully actualized. Both require significant processing ability to use, though Shirou's origin handles most of the heavy lifting. I'm still debating on how intercompatible I'm going to make Fate Magic Circuits with ToAru Magic, but that's a little ways off for now. Side Note: There are TypeMoon Psychics, that may fit the description of Personal Reality better. However, the term seems to be more of a catchall, covering everything from Mystic Eyes to Caren's condition. I have a slightly better grasp over UBW, so I'm sticking with it.

Clocktower Mages vs Academy City Researchers

\- I originally thought the researchers were worse. I mean, who would doom 20,000 to death for research? Oh, right. Noritaka Emiya and co. Well, would they create a bunch of artificial souls for the sole purpose of dying? Yes, the Einzbern would and do. Huh. Now that I think about it, at least the researchers do it for the sake of "SCIENCE!" rather than hoarding their findings like mages do. Well, most of them. "Low bar" is an understatement. The bar is buried well into the bedrock forming the foundations of their respective organizations.

Fujimaru, Fujimura

\- I assumed that Taiga had the same last name as Ritsuka, but 藤丸 (Fujimaru) and 藤村 (Fujimura) turn out to be just that slightly different. In hindsight, I could have kept it as an homage to his surrogate sister (dependent?), but the themes being explored in this case involve Shirou completely breaking his ties to his past life, perhaps to his detriment.

How did the researchers react when they saw Ritsuka's power is pretty much identical to Teitoku Kakine's?

\- As Ritsuka did not show off anything beyond projecting the mundane, it would have been categorized under "Creation". There's nothing to hint that there's anything particularly exotic about the matter that would bring to mind "Dark Matter". In addition, with his habitual self-reinforcement slipping through the façade when told to create and swing a particularly large blade, they suspect his ability to be more similar to fellow Gemstone Sogīta Gunha's.

Regarding telepaths such as Mental Out, does Ritsuka possess the ability to resist outside influences?

\- Maybe for less powerful esper abilities. Toaru telepathy works through an invisible carrier wire of sound that directly carries the information to the target, whereby it's translated by the power. Thus, I'm ruling Mental Out as "if you can't block the carrier wave, it's already too late". However, I'm willing to bet that in specific cases, interesting power interactions may occur.

Will I power Ritsuka/Shirou up?/How will canon change from here?

\- There is a different answer to this question on SB, my planning has gotten significantly farther since then. We have reached a critical point where butterflies start coming into effect, as this timeline has already diverged in subtle ways and is set to rapidly deteriorate starting July 21st (in-universe time). I have planned out subsequent events and fights, as well as potential changes to the main character that help fit them into this very interesting universe.

* * *

And that's a wrap for this first Q/A! I've got Chapter 5 partially written up, and it will be good for release sometime next week or so. Thanks for following this story, and see you then!


	7. Chapter 5

"Nope, nope, nope! Wrong door!" Ritsuka muttered as the door labeled "MEN" swung open and the redheaded girl marched out, speed walking through the opposite door with the stereotypically skirt-wearing symbol. Coming to a stop in the empty bathroom, she turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her hair was still that intense shade of red that had quickly gone silver in Emiya's later years, along with the golden-brown eyes. Her new form was remarkably similar to his younger self, if but quite a few centimeters shorter. It was a bit hard, retraining habits that he's held for decades. Rin wouldn't have had a problem. Self-hypnosis was integral to any half-decent magi, and Rin in particular was excellent at leading several entirely separate lives. Shirou, on the other hand, never quite got particularly good at separating his identity from his self. It was probably for the better, after all his magic was unique to who he was as a person, but it certainly made it harder when reaching down for a belt, only to feel a skirt, then looking down to find her shirt in the way.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Damn. I thought I had that sorted out during the power testing phase."

She walked around the bathroom for a moment, looking for the urin… _"Oh come on."_ She sighed deeply, then reached for the nearest stall door.

* * *

Walking back to the room she was assigned, Ritsuka couldn't help but reflect on the revelations last night. Magic existed in this world outside of espers and their already supernatural abilities. Groups of them likely existed, most likely affiliated with organized religion based on the nun outfit of the victim and priest's garb of the assailant. Either Academy City's personnel know about these organizations, or the EMTs and Antiskill are just that used to unusual bullshit, as nobody loading the stretcher gave a second glance at the silver-haired nun wearing a habit held together by safety pins. Then again, they had their hands full reassuring all the bleary students who woke up to find that their doors had been halfway converted to slag and charcoal. The building managers, too, had gotten an absolute earful from the fire department for the lack of glass bulb-based automatic fire sprinklers, the mandatory minimum in the building code for student residences. They didn't stick around for long at the scene though, taken to the hospital to check for injuries that may have occurred while next to a blaze with the heat of thermite. Conveniently, it also gave Antiskill the perfect opportunity to question them afterwards on the events that occurred.

"… after that the fire mage summoned a golem of flame."

"You mean the pyrokinetic?"

"No, he claimed to be a magic user and I believe that to be the case. I could sense the mana."

"You do realize that magic doesn…" "Ignore her, miss. Go on."

"What?" "Quiet you. Don't you know not to argue with the nice Level 5?"

Alright, so the odds were good that Antiskill at the least didn't consider there to be a difference between esper phenomena and magic.

After Antiskill had left, the doctor had been kind enough to not send her back home at such a time, instead assigning her one of the spare rooms for the night. While it would have been against protocol a decade ago, Academy City advances in rapid disinfection based on electromaster research has created efficient ozone generators widely adopted by the medical community. Thus, sanitizing an additional room only required hosing the equipment down with what looks like an oversized hair dryer.

The medical industry had actually been a surprisingly significant factor in Academy City's rise. Like most western universities, much of the city's income came from scientific research. Both a byproduct to and stepping stone of esper research, it was no wonder that the city became so powerful when the world fell prey to a sudden epidemic. Much of the latest work on genome sequencing, genetic engineering, and large scale disinfection measures were not only being researched, it was actively utilized in experiments. Thus, ramping up production and sending it out to the world at large was drastically simplified. It also gave the city massive leverage in the national government, which aided its efforts in gaining massive leeway regarding Japanese law at first, and eventually full sovereignty later on. It didn't hurt that a computer science research team affiliated with the city had been working on market modeling software and gained an unexpected windfall of funds through a heavily leveraged short on the American DOW. Were it to have gone any other way, Dr. Tokiwa would have absolutely lost his job for putting specifically allocated academic funds into playing the market. Instead, he bought out a massive square plot of land in the developing city's District 7, just as real estate also fell in price, building a middle school upon it to which he attached his own name. The institution's later success spurred other foreign investors to do the same, notably leading to the creation of Nagatenjouki, its heritage evident by the romaji initials it uses as its emblem.  
Ritsuka shook her head, the downsides of Tracing information kicking in. She had used it to quickly process several recent history texts to catch her up, but the practice came with several drawbacks. Firstly, it took quite a bit of practice, distinguishing the thin layer of ink as a separate entity from the rest of the cellulose, then comprehending the shapes as characters in a different sense than sight. Secondly, it stores itself in the mind as raw chunks of information, so recalling on bit of information from the page requires the whole page. Finally, it worked best on print media, which was a dying breed as the world moved to electronic means. Granted, informational texts still often come in bulky textbook form, so for gathering knowledge in a new situation, that trick always seemed to come in handy.

_"Room 226… 227… ah. There we go."_

Turning the copper-alloyed door handle, she was greeted with the bland, sterile visage of a hospital room. On the nightstand rested a cheap flip phone, which was buzzing? Must have left it on vibrate; the only civil option, really.

Flipping it open, a few flakes of ash flung up from where they had hidden for a night.

Caller ID: Misaka Mikoto

"Ah." She accepted the call and put it up to her ear.

"WHERE ARE YOU I COULDN'T FIND YOU IN YOUR ROOM AND THE DORM MOTHER CHECKED TO SEE IF YOU HAD EVEN COME BACK AND NOW SHE'S SUPER ANGRY AND EVERYONE WAS LOOKING AROUND IN THE MORNING FOR YOU AND ARE YOU OK?"

Ristuka blinked, absently noting the loss of hearing in the left ear as she processed that lengthy… sentence?

"HELLO? Are you there?"

"I'm alright," she finally responded, "Just got caught up in some trouble on the way back and had to spend the night talking to Antiskill. The doctor let me stay over at the hospital since it was getting too late."

"Oh, that's good. Wait. Hospital? Why are you at the hospital?", Mikoto inquired, clearly not realizing the effect that question would cause as Kuroko and Saten's panicked voices became distinct through the background chatter.

"A friend of Touma's got pretty injured and we had to bring her to the hospital. There's not much more than I could do and the doctor says that she's stable, so I'll be headed back soon." Ritsuka explained.

"I see. We're currently at the Judgement office, Uiharu was running facial rec on the city cameras to see if she could find you. I'll tell her to that she can call it off now. Guess what? It didn't find you, but it got a false positive on a red-haired guy that goes to a culinary school here! I didn't even know we had one of those!", Mikoto exclaimed.

Ritsuka sighed deeply, "Tell her to call it off and stop invading strangers' privacy. I'll be there in a bit."

* * *

The walk from the hospital to the Judgement office was only half an hour at a leisurely pace. Ritsuka made a note to take the train and explore around the city, it seemed she rarely ventured much outside District 7 while traveling with Misaka and friends. Not that they didn't like exploration, those middle schoolers gravitated towards danger and adventure in a manner that must be hell on the adults in charge. No, it's just that much of the city houses research and industrial facilities that children don't really have a place in. The girls would have a reason to venture to the small District 15 for shopping, but that was right next-door to District 7 anyway. Outside of those places, it was mostly the dorms and the Judgement office they have begun using as a general hangout spot, much to Ms. Konori's dismay. Speaking of which…

"Hey she's here!", and indistinct voice called from the second floor. There was a sudden sound, before tawny hair covered her vision and she felt the ground disappear from beneath her.

"Woah!", Ritsuka stumbled back from curly twintails, only to trip and fall onto a couch… and the person sitting on it.

"Gah", Saten choked out, surprised at the sudden pressure atop her. She sat there for a moment, taking a moment to parse the situation. "Hey, Ritsuka. How was your morning?", Saten greeted in her usual chipper tone.

Ritsuka took that moment to extricate herself from person and couch, rolling off them and onto the floor before lying face up, eagle spread. "Was pretty good before the surprise teleport. You guys didn't spend too much time looking for me, did you?"

On the opposite couch, Mikoto gave a smile and shook her head, or, as much as she could with her mouth full of muffin. Kuroko had the good sense to look slightly embarrassed as she sat herself next to Saten, picking up a half-empty juice box off the table. "Well, we weren't sure if you'd lost your way, gotten kidnapped, or fell asleep in an alley, so of course we'd be worried. Glad to see that you're alright!", she said, then sighed. "Mikoto was so worried about you, running around everywhere to make sure you were fine. If only she would extend that kind of care to me…" Kuroko stared into Mikoto's eyes, her face slowly acquiring a dreamy look, the one that proceeded personal space affirmation by electroshock therapy. Before such a measure could come to pass, Uiharu waved them over.

The hacker was sitting at her rig again, the battlestation's monitors all covered in browser windows, each with a dozen tabs open. She pointed at one of the windows before sitting back in self-satisfaction. "Everyone, I think I've got something here. 'Simulating Neural Pathway Crafting through Auditory Means'. This was a request made to the research portal for Tree Diagram calculations. The author, kh4111, has several other requests under her name, but this one is the most interesting. Look at the names of the output files that Tree Diagram created."

There it was, among the list of PDFs and CSVs. "level_ ", Mikoto breathed, her tone hushed. "This must be where it came from. Did you find out who's the author?"

"Sadly, no.", Uiharu replied. "It only provides a heavily redacted overview of each request to Tree Diagram, and even this was only accessible through Judgement's access to the City intranet. I'd practically need physical access to the database to…" Uiharu blinked. Her eyes wandered around, mind deep in thought. "That just might work," she muttered. Minimizing a few windows and opening a few more, she pulled up an orange application and text editor.

"Misaka, how far through a network can your power reach?", Uiharu tentatively inquired, looking over the network activity the browser captured.

Mikoto thought for a moment. "Probably not outside the city, but pretty far. Why?"

Uiharu turned back towards her dozen displays, "That's enough then. I can't do anything with the minimal data it allows me to access, but it's unlikely that they'd keep these records outside the city. I'm going to craft a search query with "gekota" in the packet metadata, all you have to do is follow that packet through whatever routers to it's destination. The server must run through all the data in the table to decide what to send back to me, both public and redacted, so I'd like you to just copy the contents of the server RAM to uh, there! I made a little debuggable program that saves the string "childish" at the start of a 4 GB block of virtual memory. Just copy it all in there, and I'll core dump the contents when I get a packet back. Then I can just dig through the data and see what I can find."

Mikoto paused for a moment, giving an angry glare to the flower haired hacker before nodding. Saten blinked. Kuroko and Ritsuka just stared blankly, looked at each other, and walked over to the couch to sit down. "Now I know how Rin felt," Ritsuka thought sullenly, absently grabbing a unopened juice box as she mentally apologized for every time Shirou had teased Rin about the Blu-Ray recorder.

In an increasingly digital society, the electromaster is king.

* * *

"Alright, attempt number 5. Using 128 gigs of RAM, constantly clearing 4 gig blocks into solid state, lets see if we run out this time."

Mikoto sighed, one hand holding an ethernet cable, the other hovering over the massive array of memory inside the system.

"In 3, 2, 1!" Uiharu counted down, punctuating with a soft click of the mouse. A faint crackle could be heard as Mikoto closed her eyes, deep in concentration. The hand inside the system started sparking lightly as well, leaping from fingertip to DRAM chip as it set and overwrote capacitors at a granular level.

"Good, good, keep going, and yes! Was that all of it?", Uiharu asked excitedly, a sparkle in her eyes as she looked at Mikoto. The electromaster looked back dryly, mentally tired from her transcription work. "Yup, that's it." she said, standing up straight and cracking her neck. "So, you get anything out of it?"

Uiharu glanced up as several program splash screens began to load. "I'll need a few hours to find out. Feel free to go out for a bit while I piece all this information together." she said.

Mikoto shrugged and looked at the Kuroko, Ritsuka, and Saten. "Any ideas?"

A silence fell as they pondered the question, up until Ritsuka broke it. "How about we visit that massive tower over there, I heard the construction is nearly complete."

"The space elevator?" Kuroko asked, thinking it over before nodding. "Yeah, that sounds good. It's a stunning view at the very leas… hold on a moment."

The teleporter retrieved her phone from her skirt, silencing the buzzing as she answered the call.

"Hello? … Yes. … Really? … Of course, I'll be right there."

She sighed as she put away her phone. "Alright, you three go on without me. There's several people causing trouble again over by the trainyards. Something about likely Level Uppers testing out their newfound power." Kuroko informed them as she strapped a band of metal spikes up on her thigh.

Mikoto and Ritsuka stood up. "I'm going with you." "Let me help with that."

They paused and looked at one another, throwing each other a knowing smile.

"Ahem. No." Kuroko stated, drawing their attention back. "I've had enough paperwork regarding electrical damages and people sent to the hospital recently, and that's with only one Level 5 tagging along. The both of you? Academy City might as well write off District 17 entirely, just as a precaution."

Mikoto started, "But…"

"No buts! Be back in a bit, later everyone!", Kuroko said, then leaping backwards and teleporting out of the building. The distinct warp of teleportation sounds faded into the distance.

"Did… she just?" the Railgun asked, pointing at the empty space where her roommate stood a moment ago.

"Huh, didn't think she had it in her to refuse to be with you." Saten commented. "So where to?"

Ritsuka was still staring off in the direction the teleporter had left in. "Do any of you happen to know a vantage point where you can see District 17 near here?"

Saten was the first to reply. "Yeah, the Endymion Space Elevator, just what we were talking about before. It's not done yet, but they did open the 1km observation deck a while back to supplement the city's investment. That should grant a view over all of Tokyo. Though, you have to have really good eyesight to make out anything specific from up there."

Ritsuka blinked. "That's better than waiting around. Lets go then!", she said eagerly. She couldn't wait to run a Structural Analysis on the materials in the tower. Any substance that could withstand such forces would be unbelievably strong; perhaps she could work them into her arsenal somehow. Given targeted alteration upgrades and some luck, Archer's bow could likely fling things into space on it's own. She chuckled at the thought.

* * *

The view was magnificent. Waves lapping against the shore in Tokyo bay, the turbines all around the city spinning away looked like a field of flowers from such a height. Light glinted off the natural blue waters and the blue glass of the buildings, twinkling in the light. All three girls were up against the glass, wearing wide, amazed smiles on each of their faces. The highways below looked like rivers of glitter, flowing and ebbing with the life of the city. Ritsuka reinforced her eyes, intent on taking in as much as possible.

It didn't take long for her to spot the trainyard, a grey patch in a sprawling metropolis. Pumping a bit more mana into her eyes, she could spot several people spread eagle over the gravel, pinpricks of light extending from their clothes. The teleporter herself wasn't in view, but several Judgement vehicles nearby gave Ritsuka some assurance.

Mikoto noticed where Ritsuka's gaze had gone and teasingly asked, "I don't suppose you've been able to spot Kuroko, do you?"

"Nah, couldn't find her yet." replied Ritsuka, now back to scanning the skyline.

Mikoto smiled widely. "Yeah, well, let me know when you find her." she said jokingly.

Saten smiled too, listening to the banter, though she did take the opportunity to take a few photos of both the city and the group of them. The three students wandered along the perimeter of the observation deck, weaving through other visitors on this fairly busy day.

It was summer break, after all, though they were over halfway through the break by this point. School would start back up at the end of next month, and thus there was some work to do in that time. In particular, Ritsuka wondered how she would try to keep up the illusion of being a middle schooler again, with the knowledge gained in several decades of age. Should she hide her knowledge, or would it have faded enough by this point for it to essentially qualify as relearning? What clubs would she join this time around? Perhaps stick with a sports team this time?

All such musing came to and end as Mikoto's phone rang. The brunette fished her vividly green phone out of her skirt pocket, putting it up to her ear. "Hello?"

_"Hey Mikoto, this is Uiharu. I've found out who made the Level Upper."_

* * *

Author's Note:

I've been waiting to do this hacking scene for quite some time now, and boy did I enjoy writing it. There's something viscerally satisfying about how well the Science Side meshes with real world logic and physics, pretty much exactly as Gigguk described it. I've also quite enjoyed doing my own world-building here and there, though in this case, I'd rather it age poorly, as unlikely as that is at this rate. Addressed a few more issues here and there that people have been commenting on, and I'm hoping to expand more upon them as we go. For now, I'll see you all next time!


	8. Chapter 6

The door flung wide open as Mikoto, Ritsuka, and Saten burst into the office of Judgment Branch 177.

Inside, Uiharu sat at her rig, intently scrolling through pages of documents as Kuroko looked over her shoulder. The teleporter held an ice pack to her head, several new bandages wrapped around her arms and legs.

Mikoto sighed deeply, "Kuroko, what happened to you?"

Kuroko turned to look at them, her eyes brightening when she saw her idol. A sudden sound and only the ice pack remained, hanging in midair for a moment before plopping to the floor. Bandaged arms wrapped around the electromaster in a hug. "Aww, so you do care about me! Tell you what, two tickets to the spa and I'll feel all better! Oh, and it's gotta be the shared baths. Hehehehe… Ow!"

Mikoto rolled her eyes and chopped her on the head, avoiding the spot where the ice pack sat. "Nevermind, you're clearly just fine." she said with a small smile. Turning to the flower-haired girl smiling at their antics, "You said you found some information you wanted to tell us?"

Uiharu nodded, getting a slight bit more serious. "Yeah. One sec." She double-clicked a folder which prompted for a password, of which she typed a particularly long string of characters into.

"Remember that woman we met yesterday at the cafe?" she preempted.

Mikoto thought for a moment. "Yeah, Dr. Kiyama. Really? You think she's behind the Level Upper?"

"Well, she at least created the file." Uiharu said, bringing up several documents. "Here's her research proposal for "On Distributed Computing for Esper Abilities", no co-authors. She cites a S. Nunotaba's paper regarding precise brain stimulus through sound and theorizes a way to network different AIM diffusion fields to distribute computational abilities based on previous research by a G. Kihara." She leaned back. "Sound familiar?"

For some reason, that last name did ring a bell, but Mikoto put it out of mind for a moment to focus on the task at hand. "Yeah, that's the Level Upper alright. But why would she keep it all a secret and pretend like she didn't know about it? It enhances the esper powers of those who are added to the network, the city would love to add such a thing to the power curriculum. She didn't mention any side effect in the paper, did she?"

"Not that I know of." Uiharu responded. "I just don't get it. If it weren't for the fact that hooligans kept getting their hands on it and wreaking havoc, this would be great. Even I'd like to see my Thermal Hand at Level 2, whatever that would entail. And you, you'd become even more powerful than you already are. Why aren't they sending this to every student in the city?"  
"Errr… That might already be happening." A voice sheepishly spoke from behind them. They turned to look at Saten, whose light smile told the whole story.

"You didn't…" Kuroko begun.

"Yeah, I did." she admitted. "What? There were people getting scammed out of their minds for a single sound file, so I made a throwaway and dropped it openly across a ton of the forums I frequent."

Kuroko sighed, "Do you know how many cuts and bruises I've gotten this past week dealing with Level Uppers?"

"Well now the good students have access to it too! People with better self control, Judgment members who can fight back!" she defended, then got a bit quieter. "Do you know how much hope this brings? To people who didn't think they could develop powers?"

Kuroko tilted her head in thought. There was more to that last bit, an undertone she was failing to decipher. Mikoto, however, immediately understood.

"Saten, did you use the Level Upper?" she asked tentatively.

In response, the black haired girl pulled a wad of notebook paper scraps from her pocket. She held her hand out, palm up, and the papers began to spiral into the air. "Aero Hand", she said softly, a hint of pride in her voice. "I had almost given up hope."

They stood there for a moment, watching the paper swirl around in a ring, before it all settled back into her palm.

Uiharu was the first to break the silence, "That's great, Saten! I'm so happy for you!"

"I'm happy for you too." Mikoto said, before taking a more serious tone. "However, that was - no, is risky. We still aren't sure this whole thing is safe. Why else would Dr. Kiyama keep such a great thing a secret?"

Saten nodded, "Yeah, I know. But this changes everything. Even if it's effect turns out to be temporary, it might help me figure out how to accomplish it myself. That's worth the risk in my eyes."

Uiharu turned back to her screens for a moment, clicking through a few folders. "I'm glad we did what we did then, Mikoto. Along with the Level Upper file, Tree Diagram also generated a reversal audio file. An uninstall of sorts. It should disconnect a user from the network."

Mikoto turned to Uiharu, "Huh. That's great! Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

"Eh, didn't seem as big a revelation as who was behind the Level Upper. Makes sense that they would create a backup plan." Uiharu replied.

"Oh, can you send me a copy of the reversal file?" interjected Saten. Uiharu looked at her questioningly. "Oh no, don't get me wrong. I like my new Level 1 status. I'm just going to post this online as well to offer a way to undo the Level Upper if anyone wants."

Uiharu nodded. "Ah, I'll get that to you then."

Kuroko took the opportunity to chime in as well, "So, does anyone want to give Dr. Kiyama a call and schedule for her to meet us again? I really want to get to the bottom of why she of all people is being so secretive about this."

"Hmm. Lets just call the hospital to tell them we're coming later this afternoon. I was going to check in on Index anyway." said Ritsuka, slipping out her phone. "Haha. The phone's put it in my 'Commonly Used' list."

She shook off the self-deprecating smirk as she turned around to make the call.

Mikoto turned to the others. "Lunch first?"

* * *

"Dr. Kiyama! Grabbing a cof… wow. Err… you're not looking too hot there. Is everything alright?"

Said doctor looked wearily at her colleague. It was just a bit too much effort to bother putting on a smile as a façade.

"I'll be fine." she said, trudging over to the vending machine. "Just a bit of a headache."

_"Alright, A0 - Canned Expresso, E6 - Generic Acetaminophen. ¥400. Coins, coins, where… Screw it…"_

Reaching into her empty blouse pocket, she withdrew 4 shiny ¥100 coins.

_"New compute node, new compute node, gah! How are so many people joining the network at once! It's what I wanted, but I didn't realize how much… Nevermind nevermind. Just a little longer. This is more than enough to run the calculations I wanted… Just wait a bit longer Banri. I'll fix this, I swear."_

"Oh, Dr. Kiyama. The new Number 8 called earlier. She said that she and the Railgun would be dropping by this afternoon to talk about that Level Upper business."

* * *

"Oww…"

Uiharu sighed. "I told you not to eat that cake, Saten. You said you were already full, and you still went for it."

"Ahahaha… But I looked so good though." whined her friend, laughing off the pain. "Tsk, ow. Since when does excessive sugar result in a headache too!"

"You wanted it, you ate it, you suffer the consequences." replied Kuroko, checking her email as she walked.

"Well, if it gets any worse, we're at the right place." Ritsuka commented as they approached the hospital.

The entrance greeted them, rows of largely empty plastic chairs before a fairly corporate front desk. Half the city population consisted of young and healthy students, so walk-ins were rare. Really, the hospital should be quite empty considering the region's demographic, but this was quickly offset by giving children access to reality-warping powers. The intensive care unit, as such, was quite busy.

The group walked up to the front desk, occupied by just one receptionist on this day.

"Hello! You're all with Ms. Fujimaru, right?", she confirmed as they walked up, her full attention given to the middle school students, mostly two of them.

"Yup! Could you direct us to Dr. Kiyama? I believe we have an appointment scheduled with her." Kuroko said, neither brandishing nor hiding the Judgment band on her sleeve.

The receptionist smiled weakly and shook her head. "I'm sorry, you just missed her. Dr. Kiyama has gone home for the day. She said she wasn't feeling very well."

"Well, that's not suspicious at all." Ritsuka thought.

"She said she'll reschedule for tomorrow afternoon at 2, if that's alright with you all."

_"Nevermind. She might actually just be sick."_

From the back of the group, a wince could be heard. Uiharu looked to her side and saw Saten clutch her forehead in pain and start to waver. "Are you alright?", she exclaimed, getting closer to check on her friend. Saten suddenly grabbed onto Uiharu as she fell over, nearly falling to her knees before Ritsuka grabbed ahold of her. Everyone was looking now, as Ritsuka laid her onto her side and put her into a European standard recovery position. She weakly looked at her friends for a moment, then lost all strength, falling unconscious. A quiet thud could be heard from the floor above, as well as a clattering of metal. In the distance, a faint explosion could be heard.

* * *

"Will she be alright?" asked Mikoto worriedly.

The Gekota-looking doctor sighed. "Nothing out of the ordinary on first glance, same with the other three here. I'll have to run a few tests. Might I ask, did she happen to use the Level Upper that you were here to ask about?"

Mikoto blinked. "She did, was that somehow related?"

"The other three were in for injuries caused by either testing, using, or abusing their enhanced power. It would be rare for multiple healthy people to collapse at the same time, so I suspected the common factor to be the cause. The thing must be networked somehow…"

"It is." interjected Uiharu. "It's a large AIM network that connects the minds of its users to share computing resources. We found out about how it was made and came to talk to Dr. Kiyama about it." She pleadingly looked at the doctor. "If any of this can help you help my friend, I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

The doctor thought for a moment. "Did Dr. Kiyama create it?"

"Wha… how" said Uiharu.

"I knew her during her days working for Folding Home, distributed computing is familiar territory for her." he revealed, then thought for a moment. Rummaging through his coat, he retrieved a bottle of aspirin from his pocket and tossed it to Mikoto. "When you find her, if she's still awake, she might want one of these." At her questioning look, he answered, "If your friend here fell unconscious from the headache as a node of the network, I can hardly imagine the pain the network administrator is going through."

Kuroko burst in from the hall outside. "Sorry everyone, I'm going to have to head out for a bit. There's a massive… creature? There's something off the highway at the edge of the district, and they're calling in all Judgment forces in the area to stop it."

Mikoto spoke up, "When did it happen?"

"About twenty minutes ago. Why?", responded the teleporter.

Mikoto thought for a moment. "I'm coming with you."  
Ritsuka got up as well, "Count me in too."

Kuroko blinked. "That's the most firepower I've ever brought into a fight." She glanced at the two people she'd be teleporting in rapid succession, then winced and braced for the mental math. Grabbing both their hands, the three of them disappeared from inside the hospital room.

Heaven Canceller stared at where the girls used to be and sighed. "Damn impulsive kids."

* * *

It was havoc. A pileup plugged the highway at the on ramp, started by the collision between a very nice looking blue sports car and a silver pickup truck. Anti-skill trucks lined the shoulder of the opposite side of the highway along with several Judgment vans, though the concrete barrier was blown out at a portion, along with several trashed Anti-skill vehicles. An arm stuck out from beneath one of the wrecks. It did not appear to be moving. Small fires burned from the splattered gasoline, along with a lithium fire from a civilian sedan caught up in the mess. Two students with Judgment armbands were treating a brunette in a lab coat, unconscious at the side of the road. Soldiers in full body armor fired a hail of bullets from behind cover, brass casings littering the asphalt. Above it all, a translucent being screeched, whipping a fleshy tentacle at the Anti-skill agents.

It was intercepted by a plain European longsword, severing the tentacle before it disintegrated into blue flakes.

"What on earth is that!", shouted Kuroko, looking at the floating monster. Compared to a flood of bullets, what more would her spikes do?

Mikoto sent a massive blast of electricity at the ghostly form, which deflected off an invisible shield. In response, a chunk of aluminum flew back, crunching in on itself as it did. A blur of steel intercepted the projectile, dissipating the effect upon it. It then embedded itself into the miasma, which caused the being to shriek once again. Another tentacle swung down at the pair of them, and Mikoto dodged right while Ritsuka dodged left.

The tentacle missed the two of them by a meter, and Ritsuka smashed into the ground, a crater of asphalt.

"Ritsuka!" Mikoto shouted, blasting the monster once again. The illusion faded as it screamed once again, revealing the true location of the limb as it wrapped around the redhead and lifted her into the air. A massive stone slab appeared in midair, severing the appendage as it fell.

"I'm fine!" shouted Ritsuka as she hit the ground. She surprisingly was, with even her uniform largely pristine despite the rough and tumble.

Ritsuka leaped back a distance onto empty highway, forming Archer's bow as she did so. Nocking a generic blade, she twisted it into a spiral and drew it back. Fingers slid off the bowstring.

A hole, a foot across, appeared straight through the head of the creature, force rippling through the body. It screeched angrily once again, turning towards Ritsuka as the hole patched itself up. It then rocked to the side, tentacles flailing wildly, as a beam of bright white heat blasted through. Ritsuka looked on as Mikoto grimaced, then grabbed a few more arcade tokens from her skirt.

_"It keeps regenerating."_ Ritsuka noted, reaching into her mind's arsenal to find the right weapon. A Celtic spear appeared, a yellow blade wrapped in purple cloth. It shrank, thinning and shortening, the cloth became folding into fletching. Pulling the metal arrow back, she imagined the trajectory, then let it fly. Another tunnel blasted through the flesh of the creature, but this one didn't close.

"Yes!" Ritsuka exclaimed, then paused. "Wait, that did nothing." she noticed as the being kept rampaging, bringing it's tentacle down upon another Anti-skill truck. All the Noble Phantasm had done was enrage it further, and she wasn't confident that she had enough mana to pepper the being into swiss cheese. Perhaps there was a weakness that she couldn't see, a flaw in the structure that it couldn't survive without. Pouring some mana into her eyes, Ritsuka incanted _"Trace On."_

Mikoto saw Ritsuka stand there for a moment, staring intently at the being. Then her bow dissipated, and she fell over onto the asphalt.

"Ritsuka!"

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
You'd think that locking down the world would give me more time to write, but noo… Of course I'd grab a copy of Beat Saber, start Duolingo Japanese, and enroll in the online Yale course on happiness. Oh, and fall down a Hololive rabbit hole that I'll never get out of. The next chapter should arrive quite a bit faster, and I'll finally complete this little initial arc. I'm really looking forward to the next one, I think I've set up just the right dominos for it to happen. As a hint, consider the consequences of these past two chapters in particular.


	9. Chapter 7

Alright, this might annoy some people for bouncing back and forth between naming conventions. There were many valid points made about how the first name basis affected legibility. Either I keep going and let readers simply get used to it, or I rethink my approach. After much pondering, I've decided on the following. Names are merely references to the character we've created in our minds. Thus, the logic behind the name usage is secondary to whether the name points to the associated person. This is all a longwinded way of saying that I'm completely loosening my name rules and just calling them by what sounds best. All prior chapters will be updated in this way, and that's what we're sticking with into the future.

* * *

Amber eyes opened to take in their surroundings.

An incomplete world. That was the first thought that came to mind. The ground was a haze, as if it had not yet decided to be soft or solid, natural or manmade. The sky above, too, was a dreary grey, reminiscent of those short years in England. All around, a green miasma floated, denser faint forms dispersed throughout the land, connected by thin tendrils of gaseous energy. The border of the world was marked by a border of fog, outlining a near perfect circle roughly 40 kilometers in diameter. Interestingly, this was not the center of the circle.

Equally interestingly, despite the hazy ground, Ritsuka wasn't this tall. She looked down. Gone was the school uniform of Tokiwadai, replaced by black combat boots. Arms moved into view, but it wasn't the slender limbs she had gotten used to over the past few weeks. Scarred, rough hands with tanned skin took their place. Projecting a simple sword, Ritsuka Fujimaru stared at her reflection in the polished surface. Shirou Emiya stared back.

The breeze shifted as he paused, staring his reflection in the eye.

"Heh." The chuckle came out sardonic, grating. "I guess I really can't change." The nameless blade dissipated as a green form drifted by, Kanshou readied in Shirou's hand instead.

_"Why?" "I just wanted… to be an esper,"_ it mumbled as it passed, speaking in several distinct voices.

Shirou lowered his blade, watching it go.

A tendril brushed past his hand, and more quiet voices began to speak.

_"I'm sorry, mom." "If I could just be a bit stronger." "They expected… so much more of me."_

A bead of pity welled up, but more surprisingly, so did a hint of distain. "Tch. Power. It's not as great as you'd imagine."

_"Maybe, maybe they'd stop looking down on me." "It's so damn unfair." "Look at how much easier their lives are."_

"Used to think that ways too. If only I had more power. Power to do this, to save that. Power to make my dreams come true."

_"How many years has it been since my level went up." "I just want something, anything, please." "They don't understand our pain."_

The disdain grew, but not aimed towards them. "So I sought after what I thought I wanted. But it still couldn't make my dreams reality. Thus I trained that power, yet it still wasn't enough. I have more than I could have dreamed of, back then. I wield weapons that can level cities. And what of it?"

The whispering died down as Shirou's voice faded into the void. Dropping down to a quiet tone, the jaded man spoke once again.

"All it did was leave a trail of blood along the way. And he went even further beyond that, sought even more power, and it broke him to the point where he'd forsake his ideas."

He paused, taking in the land that surrounded him. A somber, isolated world. He stared at the haze that stood in place for a horizon.

"The power you seek is worth much less than you'd imagine. Most issues in your life aren't easily solved through liberal application of fireballs, and however many it does solve will be returned threefold. I'm the last person to tell you all to give up on your dreams, but consider what you're truly after. I sincerely doubt it's a number on a page and some party tricks."

Silence. Or maybe they just stopped talking to him. Did they hear and understand him? Did it matter? If a few words were all it took to change the minds of so many, then the world would be a far better place… No. It'd be a far different place, only the naïve would assume it to be for the better.

He kept walking, the miasma thickening and thinning in waves. It was hard to see his own feet, the haziness of the world blended everything into a pale claustrophobic infinity.

"What… Who the hell are you?" A woman's voice called out from behind him, cracking slightly at first but then becoming more terse.

Shirou turned, Dr. Kiyama coming into view behind rolling green fog. Her eyes were slightly reddened and puffy. She was in a different outfit than the lab coat he last saw her in, a somewhat business casual affair, with a red pen in shirt pocket.

"I suppose this whole thing is your doing?" Shirou asked.

"You didn't answer my question. Who are you and what are you doing here?" she replied, watching warily.

"No, I suppose I didn't, Dr. Kiyama, but I'm doubtful either of us know the answer to your second question. What was this all for, anyway?" He asked, gesturing around him.

_"They were Child Errors. No one cared about them." "Haruue. Banri. I'm so sorry." "They were just test subjects, why does it hurt so much?"_

A voice was back, just one, and was quite distinct. Sorrowful, regretful, and resigned, the voice spoke, and her eyes dilated.

"No. Shut up, shut up!" Kiyama pleaded as she covered her ears and clamped down against the world. Her world.

_"I'll recreate what Radio Noise did, it should be just enough processing power for the calculations." "I cared about them." "One last chance, one last experiment. I have to **save** them."_

"Stop! Please! I get it! I failed! And only hurt more people in the process! Now let me be! I just wanted them back! Is that too much to ask?"

The sobbing was back, and the doctor was kneeling on the ground.

The miasma around her grew thicker and more disturbed, enveloping her in a soft green haze. Shirou looked on at the pitiful scene. He hesitated, then reached out, a blue light flashed in his hand. A dagger, fragile and impractical. Gold etching embroidered the handle and guard, a jagged shard of purple stood in for where a blade should be. A concept, given form, the embodiment of breaking bonds. The connection between people, forged for an unrelated well-meaning purpose, though it had originally given hope, was causing more harm than good. It was time to for it to go.

Walking up to the brunette, he kneeled down in front of her, and leveled a light strike at the back of her hand.

* * *

"Doctor, all the downloads have paused!" "Sir, they are insisting to speak with you first!" "Five more patients just arrived with the same seizing issues!"

Heaven Canceller turned to respond. "Call IT in to get us back online, we've only got the one music player at the moment and over a dozen patients still seizing! Send them the link and have get them to begin treatment immediately. I'll call in and explain, but that's valuable time we're wasting. Get those new patients wheeled into the main room, we'll see if the intercom system can treat multiple at once!"

The sound of shaking hospital beds and code alarms on the monitors was compounded by the staff rushing throw halls, yelling across rooms to save precious seconds. Then the shaking stopped, as nearly did Heaven Canceller's heart. Horrified, he called out into the hallways, "Check their vitals, do we still have brain activity?"

Those few seconds seemed to stretch out for eons. "Activity is normal, in fact, all signs appear to be. Doctor, I think they've stabilized." A nurse replied in a cautiously optimistic tone.

"Oh thank god." the doctor let out a sigh of relief. Several other staff members openly cheered, and the one manning the phone turned and smiled. "Sir, the other hospitals are reporting the same."

* * *

"Ritsuka!", Misaka shouted as she caught the other Level 5. "Gah! Heavy…"

A ball of flame flew by, splashing over an abandoned car, the paint charring in the heat.

"Ritsuka! Say something!", she yelled again, her voice barely audible over Anti-Skill's gunfire. She sent a light charge through her hands and into Ritsuka's body. The sinoatrial node still sent pulses at regular intervals, the neurons in the brain still very much active. No immediate danger, then. She looked around, then sent a blast of current the hood of a damaged car. The hinges tore themselves apart, sending the flat sheet of metal into the air, steel it seemed. Pulling it to her, she laid her friend upon it and sent it off to the side of the highway, away from the fighting. She then brought her attention back to the screaming, angry blob.

In the brief time she's turned away from the beast, it had put several more sizable dents into multiple government vehicles. Several Antiskill officers had been thrown against the railing when the van they used as cover was knocked several feet to the side. One had lost their helmet, another wasn't moving. Misaka reached into her pocket, then stopped. The coins weren't doing enough damage. She had to step it up. Running forward, she placed her hand on the car she had removed the hood of and a frenzy of pieces exploded out. Visualizing two lines of opposing charge, she pulled a line of steel parts through the field. In very quick succession, blinding lines of yellow bloomed into existence in a scattershot, punching through the monster like a hot knife through butter. The being screamed, louder than before, and turned towards Misaka. Energy coursed through the frame of the vehicle, swirling and changing with intent. Electrons cycled within steel, inducing a magnetic field. Another cycle nearby appeared, and the two fields clashed to create force. Fasteners that haven't moved in a decade began to move, thin sheens of rust sliding against one another. A line of bolts floated out of the car as it its front suspension fell apart, snaking over to in front of Misaka's hand. The air ionized as two opposing charges formed. It built up for a moment, before entering the bolt through one end. The vast quantities of energy slowed as it worked it's way through, coming out the other side. Energy had to go somewhere, and vast electrical energy became heat and motion. Nearly molten steel met ethereal matter at Mach 3, again, and again, and again. A cacophony of sonic booms echoed off the buildings nearby. When the booming stopped, a brunette lowered her hand, pausing to blink out the spots, then took a better look.

It looked like the aftermath of a 5 year old with a hole puncher, which was then thrown into the fireplace. What was still left had been charred to ashes, which was flaking into the wind. A vaguely crystal shaped object was floating there in the center, slowly mending the cracks that had spread throughout. The body too, was regenerating, slowly. Readying herself, Misaka lifted the engine block out.

Then the crystal shattered into dust, and the rest of the body fell apart just the same, disintegrating into the air.

"I guess that was it?" A voice asked from behind.

Misaka turned. "You're alright!" She exclaimed, as Ritsuka stood up and brushed herself off. "What happened?"

Before the redhead had a chance to respond, her smile got a bit more smug, "How come you made me do all the work?"

Ritsuka blinked. "Sorry about that. I was… wait. I thought I did that?"

Misaka looked at her funny. "You fell unconscious, and left me to get you to safety."

"No, I was…", Ritsuka paused. "Huh. Yeah, no good way to explain that. Alright, thanks for the save."

Misaka kept staring, then gestured towards the injured Anti-skill teams. "Come on, lets go help these guys out."

* * *

_White. Tiled. A hell of a hangover. What…_

Kiyama Harumi blearily opened tired eyes and gazed at the ceiling. She was at the hospital, it seemed, but not often was she the client at her workplace. Her vision grew fuzzy again, and a cold trail began down the sides of her face.

She'd failed. She'd so completely an utterly failed. Haruue and Banri were still in a coma, and she'd nearly taken a network of thousands to join them. If their temporary pain at least saved lives, she might have been able to justify it to herself. Instead, she'd only caused more suffering.

A bitter laugh rose up, only to be quenched by the sorrow biting down. No better than that bastard Gensei. Sure, she was doing it to help others, his was a sociopathic dedication to the mythical Level 6. But did the motivation even matter if they eventually came upon the same result?

It wasn't even a different motivation in the end. Weighing the lives of a few kids no one else cared about over the lives of countless innocent others, and the will to make that decision for them, the height of selfishness indeed.

It was in this state that she noted the flower on the nightstand beside her. A yellow poppy, taped to a generic Get Well Soon card. It sat there, unassuming, next to her purse, which was slightly more worn than when she saw it last. Her arm reached out for it, the pulse oximeter cable dragging across her. Taking the card, she sat up in her bed and began to read.

"You probably know by now that your actions have consequences, but fortunately they've turned out to be rather light. You'd likely appreciate knowing that there were no deaths as a result of Level Upper, though there are several who will need to remain in the hospital for some time afterwards. While you can't undo the damage, you can do all that is in your power to improve the lives of your victims. There are those for whom your actions have brought hope. A hope for a pointless ideal, but a will and determination for the future nonetheless. Keep working to save those you care about. It's not a worthless path to pursue, Doctor."

She stared. Stared for what seemed like hours on end.

Finally, she put down the card, and lay down once again, deep in thought.

Her phone buzzed on the table, and by instinct alone her hand reached for the device and slid an index across the fingerprint sensor. An email. She'd missed several while she'd been unconscious. Sender was…

She scrambled upright and scanned the address again. A scrambled name, with a government domain. She read the email intently, ensuring she hadn't missed a single word. Just in time too, as the app closed, and ejected her back onto the home screen. She reopened the app, and sure enough, the email no longer appeared. Kiyama Harumi tilted her head back towards the ceiling, her mind swimming in revelations and possibilities.

A new Level Upper, huh? Good god.

* * *

Dear Dr. Kiyama,

We've received word of your successes with the Level Upper project, and we believe it has proven its potential as an enhancement to the existing Power Development Program. As such, we are requesting that a revised, decentralized version of your brainwave network software be developed and released for the upcoming Fall semester as a limited trial run. To this end, we will be in contact regarding research resources and any additional support. We have also upgraded your credentials for Tree Diagram to allow for a set number of hours a week to be devoted to this project. Good work, we look forward to following your future contributions to Science.

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-

…

* * *

Saten woke up to a girl beside her bed. Disappointingly, contrary to how it plays out in anime, the girl was not sitting on a chair, passed out on the side of her bed from waiting for hours. Instead, Ritsuka put down her phone, and gave a simple smile.

"Thank goodness. You're finally awake. The others were so worried about you." She said, shifting in her chair to better face Saten. "How are you feeling?"

Saten blinked as she processed the question. "Um, I feel alright. What happened?"

Ritsuka thought for a moment. "No one's really sure. They think the AIM fields of Level Upper espers may have gone haywire somehow. A bunch of people across the city all fell unconscious at the same time as you, and some green tentacled thing also appeared on a highway near here that Misaka and I had to stop."

At Saten's curious look, she laughed, "Misaka and tell you all about it, and she'd be the better one to tell the story, since I apparently passed out during part of it."

The conversation drifted into silence before Saten quietly asked, "Do you think I'll get into trouble for this?"

Ritsuka blinked. "No way. Why would you, or anyone for that matter, get into trouble for falling unconscious? You all were victims of Level Upper, it'd be like punishing people for getting sick."

Saten thought about it, and smiled. "Yeah, you're right."

Glancing at the window, she frowned, "How long was I out?"

The redhead shrugged. "Couple hours, give or take. Just consider it an afternoon nap. C'mon, let's see if we can get the doctors to let you out in time for dinner."

* * *

Uiharu scanned through the document she'd illicitly acquired, investigating the origins of the Level Upper. Her report on it to Judgement was already complete, but that was practically just an insubstantial formality. She couldn't put any of the info she'd gathered from Tree Diagram in there, it would be tantamount to admitting to hacking the FBI to investigate a carjacking. The smart thing to do from here on out would be to submit that report, delete the recovered data, and move on like nothing had happened.

Of course, she couldn't do that. Saten had gotten hurt in this mess, and besides, why was a project like this conducted in secret, with so little oversight? There were so many unanswered questions here.

And so, she kept browsing, clicking through the various documents in the Level Upper proposal.

"… As it stands, sharing the higher order processing capabilities of the human mind across many individuals has precedent. It is possible to link compatible AIM fields across significant distances, as proven by the whitepaper and subsequent real-world testing conducted during the ongoing Project Radio Noise. Thus what's unproven is…"

_*click*_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

There were two routes I could go with the Structural Analysis of the AIM Burst. The more boring way was to get a slight history reading from it, we know that Shirou can perform SA from a distance (though on swords), so it stands to reason that he could get a light brush of history along with a decent structural diagram. This way was more fun, and I interpreted the Level Upper World as something akin to Jack's JP, both misty worlds made of condensed wishes. Whether it was a genuine reality marble or merely Shirou's mental interpretation of the network, well, I'll leave that ambiguous for now.  
I seem to have gotten slightly inspired by the Worm fandom's take on the general utility of supernatural powers. Generally not particularly useful under a certain threshold, and beyond that they are largely best used for actions prohibited by law. While I wouldn't say no to being able to control gusts of wind to a slight degree, it in a practical sense can be used to cool my tea more quickly or be a human fume hood. Essentially no different to always carrying a battery operated fan. If I had Kuroko's abilities, arguably one of the most useful powers, I'd still avoid using it too often lest I telefrag my roommate.

Oh, and regarding that last bit? We're finally getting to the fun part. Let the butterflies fly.


	10. Chapter 8

"Wow. You found all this in 3 hours? That's… genuinely impressive. I didn't even know about some of this."

"Hmm, yeah, incredibly strong spirit, but even I can tell that was weighing on you. Knowledge is a curse after all."

"… how does she find such trusting people?"

"I'll leave you with what you originally found. The rest… is a tad too dangerous."

* * *

"… So, I had to put her on the side of the road. I was running out of coins at that point, and it kept regenerating, so I ran to find some ammo and ended up getting some steel bolts from a car it had just wreaked," Misaka recounted as she walked, with Saten keeping up next to her, enraptured by the tale.

"You know the administration is not going to be happy about that, right?" Kuroko interjected, hands propped behind her head.

"It was already destined for the trash heap, and I was helping out, there's no way they'd get me for that!" She objected, glancing back at Kuroko to see if she was kidding.

Kuroko's exasperated smile grew as she looked her roommate in the eye. "That'd be true, if there hadn't been such an expensive blackout only a few days ago. And how about that guy's car that you totaled last week? Poor guy had their car stolen and searched tirelessly for it only to find it turned to molten scrap days later."

"Eh, that's umm…"

Ritsuka, who'd been keeping up with the conversation in earnest, spotted the opportunity to poke fun and was clearly obligated to take it. "Now that you mention it, who does pay for all that damage? I mean, I get that your signature attack is quite literally throwing money at your problems, but there has to be a limit to those funds, right?"

"Hey! They're just arcade tokens! I don't actually use money as projectiles!" defended the Railgun.

A smile grew and Saten piled on. "Wait, are you even allowed to take those arcade tokens out of the arcade? Kuroko, you're Judgement, you happen to know?"

The teleporter's grin only widened. "Hmm, that does sound like theft of property to me. While we're at it how about we talk about your conduct with vending machines."

"Guys…", the bullied Level 5 sighed, defeated and betrayed. "Fine, no more abuse of currency. It's not like I'm trying to cause property damage. Everything is just so fragile. Besides, what would I replace my coins with anyway?"

Kuroko reached beneath the hem of her skirt and retrieved a handful of shiny metal stakes. "Nails are nice. Cheap too, only a few yen a pop. I think the big carpenter ones at the hardware store would do fine for your Railgun. Plus they might even go faster, aerodynamics and all that."

"I've been meaning to ask," Saten chimed in. "How do you get away with bringing those to school? And doesn't that hurt, wearing that on your thigh all day?"

"I don't wear it all the time, only when I think I need it." Kuroko responded. "And it's not really… that dangerous? To keep around? Or at least, I had to have it approved and they know I can do the same thing with a pencil." At Ristuka's somewhat disbelieving stare, she continued. "It's not like it's any more dangerous than everyone else at school. Every class as a pyromancer or two who could light it all on fire, Mental Out could take everyone over at any time, and Misaka could level the building. Compared to that, it's probably fine if I'm carrying some nails around?"

Ritsuka's stare continued, while Saten seemed deep in thought, before shrugging and accepting the matter. Misaka didn't seem quite too happy with the teleporter's implication, but Kuroko had already accepted the imminent tasing. After the first few times, it had, weirdly enough, started feeling good, and she wasn't going to question that too much. Anyway, she was never going to directly ask for it, lest Misaka completely shun her.

"Now then, I'm gonna grab Uiharu and we'll pick a place to grab dinner?", she said, as the group approached the building that housed Judgement branch 177.

At the collective nods, she gauged the distance in 𝑛-space, making sure to avoid where she last remembered the furniture was, picked out a location roughly a few inches above where she expected the floor to be, and _pulled_.

* * *

"Hate to break it to you, but that's not a bed," a bemused voice commented, waking Uiharu from her slumber.

"Wha… ow…" The hacker blinked awake, sitting up at her desk, a row of keys now printed onto her arm where it had rested on her keyboard. For a brief moment, she regretted using a mechanical, at least a cheapo membrane keyboard wouldn't have caused indents quite that deep. She glanced up at her primary monitor, which was locked and displaying wallpapers from a movie she'd watched recently with the group. The clock read 19:24, so she'd been out for at least… what had she been doing?

Kuroko laid a hand upon her shoulder and gave a light shake. "Come on, everyone's waiting for us. Let's go?"

Uiharu gave a slow nod and pulled herself out of her chair. As Kuroko counted down the teleport out of courtesy, she looked back at her computer. She'd been reading… oh god. The memories came back in a flood, and a surge of nausea swept through her. As the teleport dropped the floor out from beneath her feet, it was all suddenly too much. Lunch felt like a day ago, so when her feet hit the sidewalk, Uiharu hunched over and retched, the taste of bile as overpowering as the horror she felt.

A chorus of worried voices shouted, indistinct.

* * *

"Really, what were you thinking! You know that you can't teleport someone without warning them first." Misaka's voice echoed, ringing through the hallway.

"I swear, I warned her first! I gave her a countdown and everything!"

Kuroko's pleading response jostled through Uiharu's mind, through the whirlwind of thoughts a moment of clarity shone though for just long enough to defend her friend. The world still swimming, she managed to prop herself up on an elbow and speak up.

"It's not her fault, I gave her the go ahead when I wasn't ready… Kuroko… can I talk to you for a bit," she said, sitting up from the couch. They had brought her back into the Judgment office to lay down for a bit, where the nausea ebbed and flowed steadily, petering out into anxiety as the seconds passed like minutes. This was too much. This wasn't something she could keep to herself, she knew that. It would eat her up from within, leaving a nervous wreak, a conspiracy theorist who looked at every corner of the city with wary eyes. No, she had to tell someone about this, but she had to be careful while doing so. She watched, gratefully, as Saten, Misaka, and Ritsuka seemed to get the message and headed out into the hallway, giving her a reassuring nod.

As the door closed, Kuroko looked at Uiharu somberly, "So. What did you want to say?"

Relief flooded through her, followed by the cold realization of what she wanted to say next. A moment passed, as Uiharu mustered up the courage to say the words that grated even to her own ears. "Do… do you trust Misaka?"

Kuroko seemed taken aback, opening and shutting her mouth a few times before sound finally came out. "I… yes, of course I do. What brought this on?"

Uiharu gave a pensive look, then continued. "Like, do you think she's a good person…" At Kuroko's stare, she waved her hands frantically to undo the damage. "I mean, I'm not saying she isn't! Like, the last week or two has been really fun, and I could tell that she seems to care about people deeply… but I've only known her for a short time. Which is why I asked you…" she trailed off.

Kuroko looked at her friend and colleague of over a year. "Did something come up that had to do with her?"

Uiharu nodded and led Kuroko over to her computer. Sitting down in an excellently adjusted chair that no longer provided comfort, she unlocked the machine and looked around for one of the many documents scattered over her desktop. Opening it, she gave it a quick once over. There it still was, she'd been hoping it was merely a nightmare, one too horrible to dream up. Taking a breath, she got up and gestured towards the open seat. Kuroko sat down absently, eyes glued to the display, which now showed a dense research paper. Project Radio Noise. She began skimming through, quickly at first, then slowing down to a crawl as brown eyes took in all there was.

Uiharu watched the emotions cycle over her friend's face. Shock, anguish, and clear horror resonating through, to which she could so painfully empathize. At the end of it all, Kuroko's gaze shifted to Uiharu, and deadened eyes asked, "Why are you keeping this from her?"

Uiharu raised her hands in defense, "I couldn't be certain that she wasn't involved. It said that the DNA was voluntarily donated. I… Misaka doesn't seem like the kind of person to allow something like this to happen, but I couldn't chance it if I was wrong." She fiddled with her hands. "I don't think I've seen her angry. I don't want to see her angry at me. I asked you about this because you've known her for so much longer."

Kuroko looked saddened at the thought. "She's a really nice person. She has her quirks, but she's someone who really cares about people. I understand that you're worried, but I really, really don't think this was done with her permission. I think we should tell her, right now."

As she finished the sentence, she slid the chair back and got out, walking towards the door.

Uiharu tracked the shorter girl as she left. "What would we even do about it? We're talking about something involving Accelerator, the Number 1 Level 5!"

Kuroko paused as her hand hovered over the doorknob, her face sporting a thin, wavering smile that Uiharu couldn't see. "We'll figure that out when we get to it."

* * *

Ritsuka didn't notice that she was biting at her nail. It was a habit she'd inadvertently picked up, one that she knew Emiya Shirou didn't have. It was both worrying and comforting, in a way, as it raised unsettling questions about whether or not this body was a host to another mind, but also separated her current existence farther from the being known as EMIYA, something that simply should not be. Of course, none of that was at the front of her mind right now, a mere whisper behind the _**seething hatred**_ for the bastards that would even dare imagine such a plan. Tens of thousands of meaningless deaths, all for the goal of potentially increasing the power of the most powerful being in the city. It was absurd and cruel at a level few magi even achieved. Even the complete loss of Alimango Island was a case where the death and destruction was out of negligence, rather than the end goal itself. If this plan was anything but fictional, then the sheer scale of callousness behind the work was beyond anything she'd seen.

Ritsuka bit down. Naïve. To think that this world wouldn't be plagued with the same darkness as the last. To believe that simply because powers are more open, that there wouldn't be those who seek more behind the scenes. What was she thinking?

Static leapt off the coffee table and skidded across her arm, stinging it. She looked over at the person who ought to be worst affected by the news, who was leaning back on the sofa, staring at a point past the ceiling, eyes sparking with smoldering anger and betrayal. For the third time in the past ten minutes, Misaka bit out, "They told me it was to save lives."

Ritsuka couldn't say anything to that. She looked around. At Uiharu, who looked distraught, fidgeting with one of the mechanical key toys she kept on her desk. At Saten, who while consoling Misaka seemed intent to put someone into the bed she'd just left. At Kuroko, who was absently flipping her spikes through her fingers, glancing occasionally out the window to stare into the distance. She took a deep breath.

"So what do we do?" She asked to no one, getting up from her seat.

There was a brief silence, then Misaka responded.

"We don't do anything. This was a result of my mistake, I'll take care of it."

The incredulous looks she got in return took her out of her grief for a moment. "Wh..what?"

Kuroko looked at her, eyebrow raised. "You really think we'd let you do that? Seriously?"

Misaka looked down at her feet. "I'm not letting you guys get hurt on my account."

Ritsuka crossed her arms. "It won't be on your account, it'd be on our own. Just on a personal level, you know that we could never know that something like this is going on and do nothing about it."

Uiharu nodded. "Kuroko and I are Judgment, we swore an oath to protect those that reside in this city. If we know about something like this, you'd be hard pressed to stop us from do something about it."

Misaka stumbled over her words, "Guys…"

Saten put a hand on Misaka's shoulder, her subtle smile infectious. "Give it up. We're your friends, which mean we care about you. That also means we care about what you care about. You know it's hopeless to stop us now."

The brunette's eyes became misty, as she repeated once again. "Guys…"

Saten grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. "Shh, it's fine. We're here for you. No matter what we'll be here for you. So don't you dare push us away."

Kuroko smiled, walked over, and joined the hug, as did Uiharu. Ritsuka looked on for a moment then joined in as well, at which point her fellow Level 5 was now audibly sobbing. She smiled too. Alright, there was indeed great evil in this world, but that's not what made life so worth protecting. In the face of great callousness around her, great compassion had emerged beside her.

Maybe this world wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

Misaka stared at the blank wall beside her bed, unable to fall asleep. The anger and determination from earlier had slowly faded, replaced by an emotional tiredness that nevertheless kept her awake. Uiharu had worked into the night, training a facial recognition model to find her clones through Academy City's security cameras. Kuroko and Saten scoured the documents Uiharu found, searching for details on any concrete locations they could investigate. Ritsuka took over the meager kitchen in the office, cleaning off the dust and disuse to cook up a simple dinner for everyone. It must have been how stressful the day was, as the plain little meal felt like the best thing she'd ever had.

They called it a night shortly afterward, with nothing concrete to work off of but a promise to continue early the next morning. She'd teleported back with Kuroko, appearing back in their dorm, which was a empty black even with light filtering in from the lampposts outside. Kuroko had gone off to shower first, and had already fallen asleep by the time Misaka was done. It felt wrong, changing into her PJs without that lecherous gaze on her back.

She shouldn't have dragged them into this. It's horror they didn't need to know, and danger they didn't need to be in, all resulting from a mistake that wasn't theirs. She knew they didn't care about that but that was all the more reason why she'd be protective of such good friends. She had half a mind that wanted nothing more than to slip out the window in the dark of night and tear the labs to the ground, not that she knew where to start. She frowned.

There it was, that powerlessness. A word that never came within the same postal code as "Level 5", but there it was nonetheless. She hated it, that she was looked to as the pinnacle of power but couldn't even be certain about the safety of her friends.

Misaka Mikoto drifted off to sleep, ending up hugging the pillow in her fitful rest. An unconscious part of her was reminded of her friends actions from earlier that night, and she held it ever so tightly. She dreamed of mirrors, a scientist with a gold tooth, and a group of friends that stood united beside her against the world.

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
It took far, far too long to figure out how to portray breaking such an important moment in a satisfactory way. To consider how the characters would think, would act, and still carry on the narrative in a way that gets to the fun parts sooner rather than later. Already working on the next chapter, since that's at least got some action in it. Still, might be another week or two before it's ready, since I've got a job to do and all that. Actually, that's a terrible excuse for a problem caused by my particular writing style. I write, rewrite, and edit all in my head, trying out half a dozen iterations of a sentence before committing it onto the page, which might only get one more review pass before release. I'm trying the fix the latter problem, but the former, combined with my horrid typing speed for someone whose profession is typing, makes for short, dense chapters. 1k words might take 3 hours, which makes my dreams of 10k word chapters quite infeasible. Though, if I ever do release such a chapter, you'll know I either got better at writing narratives or have become unemployed with nothing better to do.

On a possibly controversial note, I originally thought that these girls were taking to these terrible things happening in the city around them too easily. Recent real world events show that, no, when horrific things happen, it's not unfathomable to the point where your whole worldview changes, but is instead cynically disappointing. Unacceptable, requires drastic actions to be taken, but sadly doesn't fall too far from mental expectation. With that being said, no matter your political affiliation, if you live in a democracy, make sure to vote. I started writing because, however insignificant and quiet it might be, I feel better knowing my voice has been heard. That's what a vote is, on the actually important issues that will affect your life. So go vote, and make a slight but appreciable difference to the world where you're actually a character.


	11. Chapter 9

"So, you're the one tonight?"

"'Yes', says Misaka 9957 as she readies her Toy Soldier in anticipation."

"… Seriously, three years and nearly ten thousand lives worth of experience, six times earlier today, and you lot still haven't figured out that guns don't work? Give me a break."

"'It provides 1755 joules per round at 850 rounds per minute. Statistically, it provides a greater chance than the Electromaster ability at Level 2.' Misaka says, surprised at Accelerator's lack of understanding about basic statistical analysis."

The boy in question held his face in his hand, groaning. "..ing hell, that's exactly what the last one said, a month ago, down to the exact numbers. Why do I bother?"

A young girl, dimly illuminated by the streetlamps, cocked her head to the side. The prim and proper school uniform clashed with the a automatic bullpup rifle in her hands, as if a misinterpretation of "studying the art of war", or perhaps merely getting ready for school in the states. Her blank stare landed on the albino she faced, and with the same monotone voice she spoke, "'Indeed, you've asked that question to Misaka 9634, and 8651, and 37 other times prior. Why is it that you keep trying the same thing expecting a different answer?' says Misaka 9957 as she recalls a saying about the definition of insanity."

The boy sighed, and stood up, leaving behind the half-empty can of coffee beans on the concrete steps. He looked back at "dinner" remorsefully, shaking his head. "I think this is what they call irony, but they still wouldn't get it. Let's get this over with. I'll give you a 30 second head start. 30… 29…"

There was a flurry of motion from the girl and the alleyway lit up in gunfire. Bullets flew with pinpoint accuracy, but impacted only alley walls and asphalt. A cloud of haze filled the air as the smell of cordite permeated through everything in the vicinity. Through it all, the boy stood there, yawning, the discarded can still sat pristine next to him as holes began to litter the walls. Spent brass hit concrete, and rang out as they bounced, at first hidden by the din of gunfire, then loudly, as the first 30 round mag hit the ground as well.

"25", the boy called out, completely unmoved.

Shoes clattered, as the girl disappeared from view amidst the smoke and dust. The pitter patter of running faded, and the dust settled as the countdown progressed.

"14", the boy called, to an empty alleyway entrance. There was no response. He continued, and tiny fragments of brick kept landing as he counted.

"3" Still silence.

"2" More of the same.

"1" An admirable rendition of 4'33".

"Times up!" The ground cracked, as the boy rushed up into the air, in a precise parabola that sent him soaring above the buildings, a dark silhouette against the night sky. Gravity made an attempt to reassert its dominance, and he let it, plummeting to the ground with the silence of a snowy owl. A loud crack made his return to Earth known, landing only a meter away from a young girl holding an assault rifle. She was panting, and her shoes had disappeared, now just wearing socks and leg warmers. He knew where they were, roughly at a intersection a block away. They first tired that on him about 15 days ago, and he'd actually lost their trail, the first two times, as the sound of running was greatly reduced in socks. Granted, amplifying the small vibrations from the still night air made that strategy moot fairly quickly, but it was refreshingly new tactic. Until they kept using the exact same method over and over for the past two weeks, at which point it became stale again.

As the firearm turned towards him, he looked more closely at her. Nope, same slightly widened eyes that substituted for the expression of fear. As the report of the F2000R began once again, he held each of the bullets in stasis this time, clearing rather than inverting their velocity characteristics. When the 30th round joined the rest, he siphoned back the momentum that he stored in the Earth's rotation, and sent them back.

A splash of blood, and Misaka's head cleanly separated from her body, roughly 6 milimeters of neck aerosolized. A mental timer started counting down, he had thirty seconds to make this work. Of course, it wouldn't take anywhere near that long.

The boy walked up and grabbed both ends, a palm holding onto the body at the severed neck, and a palm holding onto the head where the blood was beginning to leak out. A stream of blood floated across his arms, leading from one to the other, as the body tried to catch it's own fall.

The echoes of gunfire bouncing off the walls began to die down.

"'Why?' asked Misaka, astonished that she could feel her body despite it being detached."

Accelerator watched the flow of blood circulating from head to body with a bored, but thin smile. "If you're not going to provide a challenge, I might as well make my own. At least this is somewhat interesting." He kept the system going for a bit, duplicating the movement of air to feed a severed trachea, and relaying barely perceptible electrical impulses across the severed spinal cord as the clone lifted her arms and tested her hands in wonder. It was a grand feat of coordination, akin to playing a piano concert by listening to the songs through headphones in real time. And yet, it barely served as little more than a temporary reprieve from boredom.

As a minute passed, he declared, "Alright, time's up." The body hit the ground with a soft thud as he let go, crumpling as red liquid was pumped to the ground in spurts. He turned the still living head in his other hand towards the concrete floor, and imparted a significant velocity downwards.

* * *

A hacker was on the verge of pulling the flowers out of her hair.

"Gah, what the hell do you mean, failed to deploy! There was absolutely nothing wrong with those configuration files!"

"It's alright, it's alright." Saten murmured as she consoled a very frustrated Uiharu.

Misaka, Ritsuka, and Kuroko looked on, all slightly disappointed and tired. They all woke up quite early one way or another, and the restless sleep had done them few favors. Ritsuka turned back towards the kettle, for which she'd ripped open some bagged tea to make it properly, or at least try to imitate it. Actually, she'd tossed quite a few bags worth in, creating a tea that could only be described as grail mud dark, just the way Rin liked it. For what its worth, it was excellent at waking up the morning undead, and Kuroko had asked for something strong.

The teleporter in question had sat down on the couch, an arm propped against her cheek.

"We still don't know whether it already happened, is in the process of happening, or never happened. I had some time to think about it, and well… That was a paper from 4 years ago, and disturbing as it is to see such a document even written up and approved in an official database like that, I'm inclined to believe it was mostly theoretical. I don't recall cloning technology to be at the point of mass production, and to raise that many kids to our age would be a logistical nightmare, not to mention keeping this all a secret. I just don't see how it's feasible," she said.

Misaka looked at her, and sighed. "I was thinking the same. Or at least, I was hoping the same. Really, it's more just the shock of reading it. As if I'd opened the news to see my face next to a story about how I took down the power to a hospital and all their life support. I don't think it's real, but it's not impossible, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if it was happening and I'd laughed it off."

Ritsuka nodded as she poured the pitch black tea into several plain cups. "So, the bomb threat strategy, then. Assume it to be true, investigate thoroughly, and if it turns out to have been a waste of time, that's the best outcome." She brought over the platter, from which Kuroko gratefully picked up a cup.

"Thanks," she said, taking a careful sip from the cup. Taking in the taste, she leaned back in her seat and gave a dry smile. "Well, we know one thing for certain."

Ritsuka raised an eyebrow as Misaka leaned in.

"It's certainly hasn't succeeded, since we're one Level 6 short for that to be the case." Kuroko finished, taking another sip. "As such, there are only two other options: it's happening, or it never happened," she reasoned, "Considering we initially assumed that this experiment was ongoing, and another option was just ruled out, I'd say that the Monty Hall problem applies and there's a two-thirds chance that we're chasing thin air."

"And if you put it like that, well, I'm liking those odds." She flashed Misaka a tentatively reassuring smile.

"So what I'm hearing is hopefully no responses?" Uiharu called from her desk, giving the others a slight grin as text climbed up her monitors. She gave the setup a onceover and a glare, before locking the computer and walking over with Saten. "That's hopefully set up now. Again, notification every time a camera across the city spots someone with your facial structure. Should be able to tell us if there are clones of you wandering the city, especially if there are as many as that paper claimed."

She looked out the window at the early dawn sky. "I know it feels weird after all this serious stuff, but I think we should go out for breakfast. I'm feeling better about all this already, and we're all out of leftovers for Ritsuka to cobble together."

* * *

Misaka glared at the phone as it buzzed once again. "Oh for the love of… Uiharu, please add a filter to exclude us from the search."

Her gaze accusingly studied the photo on screen, before spinning around to look up at the innocuous grey fixture two buildings away on the second floor.

Ritsuka looked in the same direction, then glanced over her friend's shoulder to compare.

"Yup, that's the one. There really are a ton of cameras everyone in this city," she commented, trying to recall her memories of Fuyuki. She couldn't remember many cameras, but whether that was due to it being 2007, a less densely populated region, or just a being more trusting of the populace, she couldn't tell. Even the high school's hallways didn't have cameras about, though they certainly wouldn't after the fight against Rider. Not that the cameras would have been destroyed in the battle, but they wouldn't survive Rin's duties as Second Owner the next day. Now that she thought about it, even years down the line, magi were still missing out on the whole digital recordings thing for their experiments, preferring the classics. Even so, ever since she arrived in the city, something about it reminded her of a magi's experiment. Observed, tested, uncaring. Or maybe she was projecting her current emotions onto the past, it's hard to tell.

The phone buzzed again, this time showing a photo of them looking directly at the camera, and Uiharu sighed, taking the phone and swiping through the settings.

"There, muted notifications. I'll patch it later." She handed the phone back to Misaka. "Lets grab that breakfast, and then… any plans after?"

Misaka thought about it for a bit. "I… sorry. This whole insanity has been the only thing on my mind. I'm feeling a lot better about it now, but yeah, got nothing."

"Then how about the arcade?" Saten chimed in. The other girls looked at her.

"What? We all need a distraction, you most of all, and you can also grab some spare tokens while we're there. That, and I've heard rumors about you and some punching bag game." She gave the Railgun a sly look. "So, what do you say?"

Misaka blinked, and gave a smile.

"Sure."

* * *

"…I'm sorry, why were you unable to secure Index?"

A teenage girl stood in front of him, a frown on her face. She wore a white t-shirt, tied up at the front so that her entire midriff was exposed, complementing some truly absurd jeans and the massive nodachi on her back. Behind her were shards of several guard bots, the outer metal casings of which looked more akin to a Slinky than the hardened composite alloy shell they were only moments prior. She swung her blade casually, and the bars between them fell to the floor.

He stayed where he was, leaning against the back of the cell, and raised an eyebrow. Her frown deepened, as she reached into her jeans pocket and retrieved a small white box. Tossing it over to him, he grabbed it in one fluid motion, stepping forward and walking out of the cell. Opening the lid, he pulled out a single cigarette.

"Took you long enough. Don't we only have a week left to save her?" He answered, snapping a flame into existence and leaning over it.

She kept staring. "You didn't answer my question."

He sighed, "Didn't I go through this once over through the phone?"

"You got punched out. Really." She said, deadpan.

"It ain't my fault you bailed halfway through." He paused. "Or stabbed Index halfway through."

Her eyes widened, then narrowed in genuine anger. "I couldn't have known! That was the Walking Church, for Christ's sake! How was I supposed to…"

He interrupted her. "You weren't, and she's alive, so stop beating yourself up over it." A sideways glance. "And while you're at it, stop taking it out on everyone around you. We still have a week to save her, so lets use our time wisely and stop babbling about what went wrong in the past."

He continued walking past her, as her face cycled through emotions and the grip on her sword loosened and tightened.

"Fine," she said, through gritted teeth, and followed.

He gave her time to think for a bit, then asked, "By the way, you don't happen to know anything about the Shield of Ajax, do you?"

She blinked at the sudden question. "Not much, no. Why do you ask?"

He kept walking, out the exit of the penitentiary and into the daylight. "'Cause the last time I checked, I'm damn sure it wasn't pink."

* * *

Ritsuka stared at the slim brunette, then at the flashing "999" on the BOXER arcade machine, then back.

_"Those arms do not correspond to those punches, and last I checked espers don't gain any physical strength from their powers. Either anger's beats typical levels of reinforcement and she's taking it out on the poor bag, or this city has got some healthcare perks I don't know about."_

Misaka saw the stunned look on her friends' faces and gave a sheepish smile. "Ah, well, I guess I'm just good at this game then… hahaha…"

Saten looked back and forth between the score and her friend as well, then pulled some tokens out of her pocket with a determined grin. Ritsuka raised an eyebrow, and watched with anticipation.

Seeing this, Misaka stepped back to stretch her arms, then pulled out her phone. School newsletters, package delivered, Vtuber livestream, LINE message from Mom that she'll deal with later… nothing of great importance. Out of curiosity, she opened the barebones app that Uiharu hacked out, and scrolled through the entries. Arcade security camera, several from on the way here, and… they weren't in District 8 today. Her heartbeat raced as she clicked the entry, then paused.

_"What the hell, she doesn't even remotely look like me…"_ The tension left her, and she kept scrolling. Several more false positives, and an entry from District 17. She tapped on the listing, and the picture loaded up. She blinked. Stared at the brunette in a Tokiwadai outfit, complete with leg warmers and a strange headset. Her breath quickened, as she looked at what appeared to be a gun in the girl's hands, and the emptiness of the surroundings. In her frozen state, Kuroko had walked near, and was glancing over her shoulder.

"What are you… Oh…" The teleporter spun around and called out, "Uiharu!"

The flower haired girl turned to look at the two of them, as did Ritsuka and Saten, the former in the middle of teaching the latter how to throw a punch. Taking in the tone of voice, Uiharu ran to their side to take a look at the phone screen. Without a moment's notice, she pulled a tablet out of her bag and put in the IP that she had just seen. A live feed appeared of an empty road, just as Misaka shouted out. "There's another one!"

A new notification, from a different camera in District 17, still on the opposite end of the city from their current location in District 6. Uiharu brought up the camera feed, and dark footage of an alleyway appeared on the display.

* * *

"Why'd you stop shooting? It was working so perfectly ineffectively the last 3 goddamn years of you trying it."

"Mi…Misaka knows you shoot to kill wi…with the last one. Misaka di…didn't…"

"Didn't what? Didn't what!" Accelerator shouted angrily, stomping on a bullet riddled thigh, grinding his shoe into it.

He leaned over, reaching down, then ripped out the spare magazine they always carried out of the left skirt pocket, tearing some of the fabric in the process.

"Just say it! _Say that you didn't want to die!_ Come on!" He stepped back, pooling blood splashing over his shoes and sliding off as if they were made of Teflon. He placed his thumb at the feed lips of the magazine, resting behind the first bullet as he points it at the girl.

"Mi…"

The whole bullet launched forward, case and all, at nearly 500 m/s. It tunneled through soft flesh, before running up against concrete. The force of the sudden shock of impact reaches the primer, whereby the sensitive mixture explodes, igniting the gunpowder. A small blast, and brass shrapnel flings itself into already torn tissue. It's soon followed by 29 more, as each round feeds upward, touches the skin of the most powerful esper in Academy City, and is blasted forth with reckless abandon.

* * *

The live stream plays in silence, as 4 girls watch in muted horror, and the fifth stares in quiet anger. Kuroko's hands cover her mouth, while Uiharu barely keeps herself from breaking the thin device in her white knuckled grip. In the cacophony of a crowded arcade, surrounded by the musical chimes and dazzling lights of the machines, only a few pay any notice to a certain Level 5's barely contained scream of "NO!".

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Writing Accelerator forces you into a mindset of someone with far too much intelligence and power and far too little respect for human life. Well, maybe an adequate amount of respect for life as indicated post-Sisters Arc Accelerator, but at this point, the clones don't quite fall under that bell. Thus, disassembling them like a curious child and their alarm clock, and just in this moment trying to solder it back together before smashing it with a hammer. There's a curious thought about whether doing the same to a robot in the future will be equally cruel, given a certain definition of sentience.

Also, it seems as if I've settled upon monthly updates. That's honestly slower than I'd like it to be, but it does hit a good balance of time management and not burning out. Also gives me time to finally peruse the light novels and get a better picture of the universe I'm writing about. Got my own plans that fan out for quite a few more chapters to come, and even behind the scenes consistency that I'm keeping track of. Hopefully, we can soon see some of that coming to fruition. See you all next chapter!


End file.
